Cusp of MAJOR victory against the Texada coal port

Some fantastic news!  Breathe deeply the spring air! Grin! Dance! After our first court loss, we have continued to gnaw-away against this obscene and destructive project, including working with other communities, opposing the Surrey permits, and working on our powerful second court case for later this year. And today, after two and half years of us using every roadblock that we could find to derail the Texada coal port, and building bridges and information-sharing with other key concerned communities, the Surrey Fraser Docks have announced they are exploring a major change to their proposal: http://www.fsd.bc.ca/_documents/amendment/FSD_Discussion%20Guide.pdf If fully adopted, this would mean: No daily open-topped coal barges up the Strait and Sabine Channel in all wind and weather conditions No million-tonne coal piles on Texada, with coal dust being carried in all directions during loading and unloading No reloading of US coal at Texada onto colossal Panamax ore carriers, dumping China Sea ballast water and US coal dust into the sea at Welcome Bay, Texada, to drift up and down the strait. While I trust very little of what the FSD and coal industry announces, this is the best news I have heard for a long time! This is not the end of the project, as the coal barons and now want to load Asia-bound coal ships on the Fraser River, rather than at Texada.  They are still trying to push their coal export expansion ahead, but the Texada part of the plan seems to be collapsing due to delays and costs. Thanks to everyone from Victoria, Vancouver and New West, and important communities on the Sunshine Coast, Sechelt, Lasqueti and Texada who believed that we could win this battle against overwhelming odds and a stacked deck.  Economics have clearly helped us too. We are a giant step closer to where we need to go. I'll try to post our VTACC press release on lasqueti.ca to provide more details. With thanks and a big grin,Donald Gordon