Facebook post sharing a letter to the editor by Sandy Robson, published in the Wall Street Journal on June 12, 2016
fossil fuels
Gateway Pacific Terminal: Unraveling the mystery of Peabody’s relationship with SSA Marine
by Sandy Robson
News that Peabody Energy, the world’s largest publicly owned coal producer, had filed for bankruptcy protection, broke nationwide on April 13, 2016.
That news was of particular interest in Bellingham, Washington, because the Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT), a 48 million metric ton per year coal export facility, is proposed for Cherry Point, in Whatcom County, and Peabody, in 2011, had reportedly agreed to be the first customer, looking to ship its Powder River Basin coal to Asia through the terminal. The GPT applicant, Pacific International Terminals (PIT), is a subsidiary created for the GPT project by SSA Marine, the world’s largest independent, privately-held marine terminal operator. (more…)
SSA Marine’s ‘Good Faith’ Attack on Xwe’chi’eXen (Cherry Point)
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…)
Cherry Point industries have not endorsed GPT
(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…)
Right Here in Whatcom County: Trouble With a Capital “T,” Rhymes with “D,” Stands for Deindustrialize
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…)
Vote this November as if your life depended on it
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…)
COAL STOP 