City of Oakland and Allies Fire Opening Salvos in Appeal to Restore Coal Ban
The City of Oakland and its allies have filed the first round of briefs in the legal battle to overturn U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria’s May 2018 decision striking down Oakland’s resolution banning the storage and handling of coal at a West Oakland site near the Bay Bridge.
Richmond City Council aims to phase out coal shipment
On December 18, the Richmond City Council took its first step toward ending the shipment of coal and petroleum coke (pet coke) through the city. These toxic commodities are shipped overseas from the privately-owned Richmond Levin terminal.
The Richmond City Council is considering legislation to phase out and ultimately end the use of the terminal for coal and pet coke. At the council meeting yesterday, about a dozen people spoke in support and no one spoke in opposition to an initial draft of the legislation. Councilmembers voted unanimously to submit the proposed ...
More than forty community members contribute to December 6th NCIO meeting
Over forty people gathered for a lively discussion of next steps in the campaign to make sure that coal is never shipped out of Oakland, on the evening of December 6 at the West Side Missionary Baptist Church.
lora jo foo and Ted Franklin reported on the status of both cases currently in progress: the appeal of the federal judge’s decision that reversed the ban, and the suit filed by coal developer Phil Tagami on Tuesday in the state court. The appeal will take years to resolve. The timeline for the state case is less clear at this point. NCIO is closely watching both ...
Tagami Sues Again Claiming City’s Liability May Reach Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
As his plan to build the West Coast’s largest coal export facility falters, developer Phil Tagami has launched a second lawsuit against the City of Oakland, blaming the City for his inability to meet construction deadlines set forth in his lease and claiming the City may owe his companies Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (OBOT) and Oakland Global Rail Enterprise (OGRE) hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
In a 50-page complaint filed in Alameda County Superior Court today, OBOT and OGRE allege that the City unlawfully interfered with Tagami's efforts to ...
City Says Coal Terminal Lease Is Dead; Tagami Threatens New Suit
In a dramatic new challenge to developer Phil Tagami’s plan to build a marine coal terminal in West Oakland, the City of Oakland has given notice that he will soon lose his 66-year lease on the West Gateway for failure to meet critical milestones for beginning construction. Although Tagami’s lawyer asserts that the lease has not been terminated, City Attorney Barbara Parker notified Tagami that the lease will automatically terminate on November 22, 2018 without any further notice.
In response, Tagami is threatening a new lawsuit against the City demanding $26 ...
Barbara Lee refuses support from coal developer Tagami
Congresswoman Barbara Lee, representing California's 13th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, including northern and western Alameda County, recently joined No Coal in Oakland's pledge to refuse any support from coal developer Phil Tagami until he makes a legally binding commitment not to use Oakland's proposed marine terminal for coal.
Congresswoman Lee is the most prominent candidate and elected official to endorse NCIO's campaign so far. The pledges are intended to demonstrate to Phil Tagami that he is politically isolated as long as he ...
No Coal in Vallejo launches
No Coal in Vallejo launched on Saturday, October 6, 2018, when more than two dozen people crowded into the VStudio community space to hear about the campaigns against coal in Oakland and Richmond, ask questions, and think about how to move a campaign against coal forward in Vallejo.
Many of the people who attended on Saturday are activists in Fresh Air Vallejo, a group that has been fighting for 3-1/2 years to prevent the construction of a cement factory on the Napa River. The cement factory poses serious environmental hazards. Cement dust is toxic, linked to asthma and ...
Spirited demo exposes Bank of Montreal’s role in deceptive coal terminal financing
No Coal activists and supporters held a spirited demonstration in San Francisco on September 12, outside a meeting of Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), an organization that promotes socially-responsible investment. We demonstrated to alert investors that the Bank of Montreal (BMO) may try to invite them to invest in waterfront "infrastructure" that is actually the proposed Oakland coal terminal. Also, BMO sent a representative to the conference, which was timed to coincide with the Global Climate Action Summit, and we wanted to make sure he registered the ...
NCIO Rises for Climate, Jobs, and Justice in San Francisco
On September 8th, 2018, No Coal in Oakland joined 30,000 marchers from around the Bay Area, California, the U.S. and the globe "to demand our elected leaders commit to no new fossil fuels and a just and fair transition to 100% renewable energy" at the coming week's GCAS and beyond. The San Francisco march -- Rise for Climate Jobs + Justice -- lived up to expectations, and the 50+ panel street mural at Civic Center was awesome. See 350.org's press release & photo albums on Flickr for a rich chronicle of the day; the full-size aerial photo of the murals surrounding Civic ...
Street mural in miniature: banner making at NCIO art party
On Sunday afternoon a group of No Coal in Oakland activists and artists gathered in a West Oakland backyard to organize the many pieces of next weekend's RISE March for Climate, Jobs, and Justice in San Francisco. To rehearse the layout and painting of NCIO's 35' street mural -- one of as many as fifty that will be chalked and painted at SF Civic Center on Saturday Sept 8th, at the endpoint of the RISE March -- artists painted the planned street mural in miniature onto cloth that will be carried as a banner from the meetup point at the Embarcadero to NCIO's place in the ...
