Open Letter: Oakland Coalition Urges Hedge Fund Mogul to Stop Coal Threats
The following press release was sent to a broad array of print and online journalists to publicize an open letter to Jon Brooks. Brooks is the hedge fund owner who is threatening West Oakland with a giant coal export facility on the site of the former Oakland Army Base. See Who Is Jon Brooks?
If you or your organization would like to sign on to the Open Letter, individuals can sign on here and organizations can sign on here.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 5, 2025
Oakland Coalition to Hedge Fund Owner:
Ditch Coal Export Terminal Plan Now!
Oakland, CA — Eighty-six organizations and nearly a thousand individuals released an open letter to Los Angeles hedge fund owner Jon Brooks today, calling for an “irrevocable commitment” not to build a coal export terminal in Oakland. Signatory organizations include neighborhood, labor, public health, faith, climate and environmental justice groups.
Jon Brooks entered Oakland’s ten-year conflict over coal four years ago. Brooks’ hedge fund loaned $7.1 million to a coal company executive who was working with local developer Phil Tagami to export coal through Oakland. When the coal executive’s company went bankrupt, Jon Brooks took possession of the company and its contested right to ship coal through the proposed terminal.
The open letter lays out concerns that have stirred strong community opposition since 2015, ranging from coal dust’s impacts on public health in East Bay neighborhoods, especially in West Oakland, to coal’s role in the global climate crisis.
The letter cites multiple ways in which pursuing coal could derail the entire terminal endeavor. It encourages a “clear-eyed evaluation of options beyond coal,” which could align Brooks’ interests more closely with the people and City of Oakland.
The breadth and depth of Oakland’s determination that a coal export terminal will never operate here are reflected in the comments below from many sectors of our community:
“We in West Oakland are working with the State, the Port and the Air District to clean up the heavy local air pollution that contributes to some of the highest rates of asthma and premature births and shortest life expectancies in Alameda county. I, my children, and my grandchildren live with the effects personally as we contend with asthma. According to the AB 617 Five Year Report, authorized by the CA State Legislature, there are still alarming rates of asthma in twelve schools in West Oakland. We must not go backwards, adding coal dust to the mix,” said Ms. Margaret Gordon of the West Oakland AB 617 Emissions Reduction Steering Committee and co-founder and co-director of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project.
“Our students and our classrooms benefit when children’s exposure to fine airborne particles—such as those that would waft from coal trains – is reduced to the lowest possible level. Breathing these microscopic particles impairs both the cognitive and behavioral development of children. It can also cause asthma or provoke asthma flare-ups, which disrupt the school days of many children. Our children need clean air, especially in those environmental justice communities who live along the train tracks from Martinez to West Oakland,” said Keith Brown, former president of the Oakland Education Association and current executive secretary-treasurer of the Alameda Labor Council.
“Mr. Brooks generously supports efforts against Parkinson’s Disease. He could help prevent cases of Parkinson’s as well as equally tragic strokes and Alzheimer’s by preventing coal trains from rumbling through Bay Area communities,” said Jan Kirsch, MD, MPH, and board member, San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility. Mr. Brooks has served on the board of directors of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research since 2007.
“As a pediatric nurse for over 40 years I strongly oppose coal exports through Oakland. Trains carrying coal would endanger the health of children and families and the entire community. I have seen the effects of the climate crisis on health and it should be treated as a public health emergency. A peer-reviewed Health Impact Assessment predicts important effects, particularly on people of color and the economically disadvantaged, including increased mortality, hospitalization for cardiovascular and respiratory disease, asthma exacerbation, work loss, and days of restricted activity. Preventing the transport of coal through our neighborhoods is preventive health care,” said Martha Kuhl, RN, former treasurer of the California Nurses Association and current 1st Vice President of the Alameda Labor Council.
“Coal is destructive and unhealthy for the environment, for the Bay, and for communities around terminals and transport routes. We urge Mr. Brooks to consider the disastrous effect his proposed terminal would have on West Oakland, and make a binding commitment to the community to never transport coal through our neighborhoods to the Bay,” said Ben Eichenberg, staff attorney for San Francisco Baykeeper.
“The climate crisis deepens every day. Shipping ten million tons per year of Utah coal through Oakland for combustion in other countries would be a carbon bomb adding to the destruction from burning fossil fuels— most recently tragically affecting your home town. Please don’t add to the ongoing disasters, which are happening worldwide, ” said Jack Lucero Fleck, Board President, 350 Bay Area.
“Our letter is a signal to Jon Brooks: Trouble Ahead! if you continue to pursue coal,” warned Reverend Ken Chambers of West Side Missionary Baptist Church, founder and president of the Interfaith Council of Alameda County.
The full letter and signers to date can be found at https://nocoalinoakland.info/open-letter-to-jon-brooks/
Photo at top depicts an emergency action organized by Youth vs Apocalypse at Oscar Grant Plaza on 7 Nov 2019. Youth vs Apocalypse is one of more than 85 organizations that have joined in the open letter to Jon Brooks. Photo credit: Francesca Cunningham.