Coal

In the last VESG online newsletter, we reported on hundreds protesting against the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) closed door decision-making on the proposed coal port that would make Vancouver the largest exporter in North America of the dirtiest of fossil fuels. Organizers of the protests argue that the VFPA has failed to protect the public interest as it refuses to address the full impacts or conduct adequate public hearings on proposed coal export expansion.

In the northeastern tip of Colombia, fierce resistance to Cerrejón, one of the world’d largest open-pit coal mines, has seen indigenous communities block highways and railway lines in recent weeks. These protests take place in the context of a wider movement of indigenous people trying to safeguard their territories. “In 30 years of pillaging natural resources, [the company] has achieved absolutely nothing positive for us,” says Yasmin Romero Epiayu, an indigenous Wayúu woman who resides near the Cerrejón mine in La Guajira, Colombia.

Share prices of major coal mining companies in the United States have collapsed in the last two years. Investors have lost billions. The lack of any solution to the high levels of climate pollution from coal burning is dimming the industry prospects for a growing number of investors. Amazingly this gutting of market capitalization over the last two years has happened while US coal production fell just 6%. It's not today's relatively small decline that has spooked investors. Instead it is a rapid change in what the future looks like for American coal.

I have written frequently to explain how dramatic expansion of unconventional oil like bitumen in Canada is found by all leading international analysts to be inconsistent with the 2 C limit our political leaders promise to strive for. The same is true for any expansion of coal-fired power plants. For this reason, I agreed to sign my name to this statement by leading researchers on the urgent need for no new coal plants, anywhere in the world, unless they capture and store the carbon pollution. We can no longer allow the construction of new, unabated coal plants.

...After a billion litres of coal slurry leaked from the old Obed Mountain mine’s “containment” pond into the Athabasca River without anyone noticing, McQueen assured Albertans, “We have very strict environmental standards in this province, and they’re all being followed.” So “strict” adherence to Alberta’s rigorous environmental standards has resulted in what may be the biggest spill of pollutants in Canadian history. Again we see a complete disconnect between the minister’s words and reality.

About a dozen protesters, including one of Canada's leading energy-environment economists, were arrested Saturday after setting up a blockade on train tracks in White Rock, B.C., aimed at stopping U.S. coal trains from reaching local ports. Mark Jaccard, a professor of sustainable energy at Simon Fraser University and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was arrested along with several others late Saturday evening following a day-long protest in the 15000 block of Marine Drive. "Thirteen protesters were arrested without incident and were respectful of the police and the process that was ...

Opponents of a proposal to expand the Fraser Surrey Docks coal terminal presented Surrey city council with a petition on Monday afternoon that calls for broad human health studies to be conducted before a final decision is made on the project. Paula Williams, organizer of a group called Communities and Coal, says that over the past three months, more than 11,000 people signed the anti-expansion petition. Williams says that it’s not necessarily coal dust that her group opposes, but diesel particles from the train engines hauling coal to the terminal on the Fraser River.

About a dozen protesters, including one of Canada's leading energy-environment economists, were arrested Saturday after setting up a blockade on train tracks in White Rock, B.C., aimed at stopping U.S. coal trains from reaching local ports. Mark Jaccard, a professor of sustainable energy at Simon Fraser University and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was arrested along with several others late Saturday evening following a day-long protest in the 15000 block of Marine Drive. "Thirteen protesters were arrested without incident and were respectful of the police and the process that was ...

Dr. Frank James is an American - his citizenship is significant to this story - and the health officer for Washington state's San Juan County. He is also a professor of public health at the University of Washington. James is a member of Whatcom Docs, a group of physicians that formed two years ago when it learned of a proposal to ship up to 48 million tons of Wyoming coal through Bellingham. It would mean 50 kilometres of coal train running along the shores of Puget Sound per day. From an initial core of about 140 interested physicians, Whatcom Docs has since grown to 215 members.