by Sandy Robson
An August 13, 2015 joint press release issued by SSA Marine, Cloud Peak Energy, and the Crow Tribe announced that, “the Crow Tribe and Cloud Peak Energy are joining SSA Marine as partners in the Gateway Pacific Terminal.” The proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT) project, if permitted and built, would be sited at Xwe’chi’eXen (Cherry Point), in the northwest corner of Washington state, along the Salish Sea shoreline. (more…)
by Sandy Robson
United States Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) is on a mission. His mission is to do whatever it takes to get the Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT), a 48 million metric-ton-per-year coal export terminal, permitted and built. The GPT project is proposed in Whatcom County, Washington, and would be sited at Xwe’chi’eXen (Cherry Point), along the shoreline, which is part of the Lummi Nation’s traditional fishing area. The company proposing GPT is Pacific International Terminals (PIT), a subsidiary created for the project by SSA Marine. (more…)
By Sandy Robson
After reading their 2015 Whatcom County Voters’ Pamphlet, some voters could wonder if Port of Bellingham Commissioner candidate Gary Jensen’s pants are on fire. Current Ferndale Mayor Gary Jensen’s candidate statement in the “Whatcom County Official Local Voters’ Pamphlet” seems to be an odd manifesto which contradicts the mayor’s actions. (more…)
by Sandy Robson
Whatcom County Charter Review Commissioner Chet Dow
By Dena Jensen
If you were a sleek and colorful little hummingbird who had unrestricted access to the immediate vicinity of 119 N. Commercial Street in Bellingham, both inside and out, on Tuesday, June 16, 2015, what would you have seen? (more…)
by Sandy Robson
[Updated October 7, 2015: Since the publication date of this article, proposed Whatcom County Charter Amendments 1, 3, and 10 have been placed on the November 2015 Whatcom County general election ballot as Propositions 1, 2, and 3 respectively. Also, the Whatcom County Charter Review Commission made revisions to amendments 3 and 10 since the publication date of this article. The link to a list of the charter amendment propositions on the November 2015 Whatcom County general election ballot is: http://www.whatcomcounty.us/1553/Proposed-Amendments]
“The Obscure County Election That Could Change the Planet.” That’s how reporter Coral Davenport described the 2013 County Council election in Whatcom County, Washington, in the title of her May 2013 article in the National Journal Magazine. Davenport spotlighted the 2013 race for four seats on the County Council, and her article’s subtitle, “A little-watched race in Washington state will determine how America uses its coal—and the future of the global climate,” summed up the situation well. (more…)
by Sandy Robson
The Lummi, a Coast Salish people, are the original inhabitants of Washington state’s northernmost coast and southern British Columbia. The Lummi Nation is a self-governing nation and is the third largest tribe in Washington state. Lummi refer to themselves as the Lhaq’temish, or People of the Sea. Their survival and culture have depended on the annual migrations of salmon for centuries, but salmon are now severely threatened after salmon stocks have drastically declined. (more…)
by Sandy Robson
In a January 5, 2015 letter sent to the United States Army Corps of Engineers (“the Corps”) by the Lummi Indian Business Council (LIBC), LIBC Chairman Tim Ballew II wrote: “The devastating environmental impacts associated with this project, as well as the trust responsibility of federal agencies to ensure the protection of the treaty rights of the Lummi Nation, mandate the denial of any and all permits under the Corp’s jurisdiction.” (more…)
by Sandy Robson
Public records reveal that some of the local elected officials in Whatcom County, Washington, continue to put SSA Marine Inc. in the driver’s seat, working directly with the company’s hired public relations and advertising consultants to promote SSA Marine’s proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT); a coal export terminal, which would store, handle, and ship 48 million metric tons of coal annually at Cherry Point, located just outside the city limits of Ferndale, in Whatcom County. (more…)
(This commentary was originally published in The Northern Light, Letters to the Editor, December 11-17 edition)
Commentary by Paula Rotundi
There are three existing Cherry Point businesses – BP Refinery, Alcoa-Intalco Works and Conoco-Phillips – and none of them has endorsed the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT). The GPT proposal gives our existing Cherry Point industries significant reasons for concern. For them, GPT would be a horrific neighbor. (more…)
by Sandy Robson
NWJA Co-Chair Brad Owens at October 27, 2012 GPT EIS scoping hearing in Bellingham
On September 13, 2014, about seven weeks before the November 2014 Whatcom County elections, KGMI’s Saturday Morning Live radio show host Kris Halterman interviewed Brad Owens, Co-Chair of the Northwest Jobs Alliance (NWJA), which was created in 2011 specifically to promote the Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT) project. The topic of the interview was Cherry Point industries. Owens told Halterman that NWJA’s focus has changed from focusing on the GPT project, to the Cherry Point industrial area, as Owens claimed: “In the past few months we have come to know that there’s a very organized, what I would view as an attack on our job base at Cherry Point.” (more…)
by Sandy Robson
I am aware of two individuals, who submitted Letters to the Editor (LTEs) to Whatcom Watch (WW) in response to Editor Bob Schober’s August 2014 brief editorial, “Legal Claim Withdrawn.” In both cases, there was resistance from Schober to publishing these LTEs in which the authors expressed their views about his editorial. The LTEs were eventually published by WW; Carol Follet’s LTE was published as written, and Ellen Murphy was required to revise her LTE before WW would publish it. (more…)
(This is the first publication of this piece which Whatcom Watch refused to publish when it was submitted to their publication in May 2014)
Commentary by Sandy Robson
On February 5, 2014, SSA Marine’s local consultant for its Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT) project, Craig Cole, sent a letter to Whatcom Watch threatening a libel lawsuit in response to my article entitled, “What Would Corporations Do? Native American Rights and the Gateway Pacific Terminal,” published in the January issue of Whatcom Watch. The fact that Mr. Cole claimed he was libeled in an article in which he was never mentioned, and threatened to sue Whatcom Watch, distracts and misdirects attention from the article’s content. (more…)
Commentary by Christine Westland
I am now a senior, but looking at photos of my grandfather as a young boy I am startled to realize how different his day-to-day life was from mine, just 100 years ago.
Earth’s population was about 1.8 billion, and the Industrial Age was young. Earth’s population is now almost 8 billion, and we have gobbled up most naturally existing liquid oil, but continue to dig for every last drop. Blind to healthier options, we continue to overuse fossil fuels. We are clear cutting forests, blowing up mountains, digging huge holes, leaving behind toxic sludge, dumping garbage into the ocean and depleting soil with industrial agriculture. (more…)
by Sandy Robson
Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes in the campaign to win approval for a 48 million ton coal export terminal at Cherry Point? Many of those efforts are not in view of the public, but can come to light via public records requests related to various components of the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT) project. (more…)
COAL STOP 