Congressman Jim McDermott on Wednesday introduced “The True Cost of Coal Act of 2012” to address the growing concern over proposals that would bring nearly 175 million tons of coal by rail through Pacific Northwest cities, including Edmonds.
According to a news release issued by McDermott’s office, the legislation would require rail companies to suppress coal dust by covering or spraying freight rail cars carrying coal. The bill also imposes a $10-per-ton tax on all extracted coal, and money generated from that tax would go into a newly created fund expressly intended to help states and localities address the adverse effects of transporting coal.
The coal, intended for export to foreign markets, would provide little benefit to Washington or Oregon, while generating a significant amount of noise, environmental pollution, traffic congestion and public health risks for the cities and communities they are traveling through, the news release said. “Coal trains release coal dust into the air, which harms the environment, degrades air quality and exposes nearby communities to significant health risks.”
The goal, the release said, is to ensure that the coal companies, not the taxpayers, are responsible for covering the negative impacts related to the coal exports.
Local volunteer citizens group Sustainable Edmonds has been meeting monthly to organize opposition to the coal trains, and the local Sierra Club chapter has also been involved in the effort. And on July 11, Edmonds Mayor Dave Earling joined public safety officers and other elected and appointed officials for a “Don’t Block Our Beach” rally — with the goal of finding a solution to train traffic congestion along the Edmonds waterfront.
“I’m opposed to these coal trains traveling through the heart of Seattle and the Northwest altogether,” McDermott said. “As we continue to push for strong cumulative environmental impact reviews of these proposals, we also need to be thinking about how we would handle the true costs this coal would have on the Northwest.”
The Edmonds City Council is one of several Washington State city councils that have passed official resolutions expressing concern about the adverse impacts of the coal export trains and/or opposition to the coal export proposals. The others are Seattle, Spokane, Marysville, Camas, Stevenson and Washougal.
In May of 2012, McDermott and Congressman Adam Smith (D-WA) sent a letter to the Army Corps expressing concern about the adverse impacts of the coal trains and requested a cumulative environmental impact study be conducted on the proposed coal export terminals in Washington and Oregon.
More information on the bill, including coal industry reaction, is included in this story from our online news partner The Seattle Times.
Drive the cost of coal and oil up and then hope that windmills and solar panels are good enough? Is that the plan? Dumb.
Exports help our balance of payments, and contribute to the strenght of the US Dollar. We should do everything we can to support businesses that creat jobs, and sell products into the export market. I support measures to insure that coal dust be controlled. I grew up in Pennsylvania and I know what anthrasilicosis does to a person. That is a realitively easy fix. Spray latex on every coal car and it binds the dust. Commerce is what built this country. I can’t belive that people are upset about waiting 5 to 7 minutes for a train to pass. Waiting is part of our contribution to a strong economy.
Do we have a long range plan that identifies our energy needs when oil becomes too expensive to use? I don’t think we should be exporting our non-renewable energy resources until we have such a plan. It’s reasonable to assume there will be more train traffic at that time. Do the tracks have sufficient capacity? How will coal be used when oil is no longer available?
At $10 a ton for a mitigation tax the 175m tons would produce $1.75Billion a year for the mitigation fund. If Edmonds can get just 1% of these funds the $17.5m per year would be enought to pay for a $175m project financed over 20 years. Pretty good start at a tunnel under the tracks. So let’s get our mitigation plan going, try to get more than 1% and we could move the ferry dock too. Coal dust could turn into gold dust!!