KPIX: developer coal threat as bid to extort payment from City of Oakland
Behind the chyron "Concessions or Coal?" KPIX (the local CBS affiliate) broadcast a story headlined "Despite a Coal Ban in Oakland, Developer Leverages Proposed Facility Against City" on the July 8, 2021 evening news.
Margaret Rossoff and Ann Harvey of No Coal in Oakland, and Isha Tobis Clarke of Youth vs Apocalypse were interviewed for the story, as well as Greg McConnell, now acting (as the story describes) as "front man for Vikas Tandon, a financier who has taken over plans for a coal terminal next to the Port of Oakland."
In the segment, McConnell floats Tandon's ...
New terminal developer threatens to stick with coal unless Oakland pays him plenty
Vikas Tandon wants the City to fork over piles of money, to lower his rent, to extend the West Gateway lease, to provide construction financing, and/or to hand over additional property. The hedge fund operator -- who late last year acquired a contested sublease on the Oakland waterfront property where developers have been angling to build a coal terminal -- met via Zoom in early May with anti-coal activists and attorneys from a half-dozen local and national organizations, and told participants that in return for significant concessions from the City he’ll develop the ...
Oakland Post’s coal op-ed is riddled with errors
Late last month, Paul Cobb, publisher of the Oakland Post, wrote an opinion piece criticizing Oakland’s officials for refusing to negotiate a resolution to the dispute over a coal terminal developers want to build next to the Bay Bridge toll plaza. In fact, it is the developers who have not responded to City requests to reach a settlement.
The opinion piece, titled “Time for the Mayor and the City to stop the Madness and Settle the Coal Dispute,” was published on the front page of the March 24-30, 2021 print edition (datelined March 25, 2021 on the paper’s ...
Hedge Fund Ousts Coal Exec in Bid to Build Oakland Export Terminal
On Election Day -- November 3, 2020 -- Los Angeles hedge fund manager Vikas Tandon took over the company formed to build a coal export terminal in West Oakland. Judge Joan Lloyd of the United States Bankruptcy Court in Louisville, Kentucky anointed Tandon the new CEO of Insight Terminal Solutions (ITS). Tandon’s company, Autumn Wind Lending LLC, is now the sole owner of ITS, though whether ITS’s mission to ship coal through Oakland will change under new ownership remains unknown.
For seven years, ITS’s ousted CEO, coal industry veteran John J. Siegel, Jr., dreamed ...
No Coal in Oakland and the 2020 City Election
In 2016 the Oakland City Council voted unanimously to ban the storage and handling of coal at a proposed marine terminal on the city’s waterfront. The ban was reversed in a federal court decision, but construction of the terminal has not begun and the City still has multiple options for preventing its use for coal. No Coal in Oakland (NCIO) wants to preserve the City Council’s commitment to a coal-free Oakland, an issue of environmental justice that aims to both reduce our city’s contribution to climate chaos and protect residents of West Oakland already disproport...
Utah Legislature: No Special Session Bailout for Bankrupt Oakland Coal Project
The Utah legislature completed its special session Thursday without allocating $20 million to bail would-be coal terminal operator Insight Terminal Solutions (“Insight”) out of bankruptcy, thanks to the work of a coalition of public interest and environmental activists formed less than two months ago after NCIO discovered and informed Utah allies that four counties hosting Wolverine Fuels' coal mines planned to apply for state funds to pass on to Insight to keep it in CEO John Siegel's hands. See Utah coal counties pledge $20 million in state money to help get Oakland ...
WOEIP, Youth vs Apocalypse, and NCIO on KPFA’s “Full Circle”
Three Oakland activists shared their experiences working for environmental justice, including on the campaign to keep coal out of our city, on KPFA on August 14, 2020. “Full Circle” -- hosted by the First Voice Apprenticeship program at KPFA -- broadcast an interview conducted by Darlene Pagano with representatives of three local organizations: West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, Youth vs. Apocalypse, and No Coal in Oakland. Ms. Margaret Gordon, Isha Tobias Clarke, and Michael Kaufman represented the three organizations, respectively (Ms. Margaret is both a ...
Will Throwing John Siegel a $20 Million Lifeline Buy Utah a California Coal Terminal?
Today, a coalition of Utah environmental and public interest organizations called on the Utah Legislature to turn down an urgent bailout request from the bankrupt developer of the embattled coal export terminal project in Oakland, Calif.
A change of platform for NCIO Updates
No Coal in Oakland sends e-mail updates to let our community know about important developments in our campaign, and to engage Oaklanders and allies in helping to keep our waterfront free from toxic coal.
For many years we have been using Mailchimp to send NCIO Updates. As of mid-year 2020, however, we’re changing platforms.
Going forward, we’ll be using Action Network -- an organizing platform widely used since 2012 by progressive groups and campaigns, from the Black Friday Walmart Strikes to Daily Kos to Diablo Rising Tide -- both to maintain our e-mail list and ...
Utah money laundering scheme aims to bail out bankrupt Oakland coal operators
“Utah coal counties pledge $20M in state money to help get Oakland port back on track,” an article in the Salt Lake Tribune published on Sunday July 5, 2020, exposes a money laundering scheme that has been years in the making.
A No Coal in Oakland article of March 2016 describes the Utah state government's complicity in a shell game aimed at sidestepping initial legal challenges to attempts to squander public funding originally allocated to mitigate the effects of mining on local (Utah) communities.
The scheme, driven by elected leaders in four Utah counties in ...
