This comes from the Sightline Institute's report on coal export projects that came out last Fall.

Northwest Coal exports pdf

By Eric de Place What is the status of coal exports in the Northwest?

Two coal export terminals are planned so far, both in Washington. They have the potential to dramatically increase the amount of coal shipped to Asia. Other ports are reportedly talking with coal companies. Some coal already travels through terminals in British Columbia. Most of it is high grade metallurgical coal mined in Canada, rather than the thermal power plant fuel coal from the Powder River Basin. The biggest coal export facility is the Westshore Terminal at Roberts Bank, just north of the US border, which moves about 21 million metric tons of coal annually. Neptune Terminals in North Vancouver moves an additional 8 million metric tons, and Ridley Terminals in Prince Rupert exports roughly 9

million. The region’s coal export picture would change dramatically with the addition of two new export facilities currently planned for Washington: * Longview. Millennium Bulk Terminals, a subsidiary of the Australian coal mining company Ambre Energy, purchased a port site in Longview, Washington, along the Columbia River, in January 2011. Arch Coal, a major American coal mining company, also acquired a 38 percent stake in the site. The companies hope to export between 20 and 80 million tons of coal a year from Longview. * Cherry Point. In February 2011, Peabody Energy, the world’s largest coal company, announced plans to export 24 million tons of coal a year from a large new shipping terminal at Cherry Point, just north of Bellingham. The terminal is to be built and operated by SSA Marine. Once completed, it would be capable of handling 48 million tons of coal annually. In addition, several other ports in the Northwest appear to be considering coal exports. The Port of Morrow, in eastern Oregon, signed a one-year lease option to transfer coal from trains to barges, presumably to be shipped onward to an export facility on the lower Columbia, such as Longview. Also downriver is the Port of St. Helens, Oregon, where officials are reportedly talking with a coal export developer.

Burning 100 million tons of Powder River Basin coal releases roughly 180 million tons of heat-trapping carbon-dioxide into the atmosphere. That’s about twice as much global warming pollution as results from every activity in Washington in a year, including every power plant, car, truck, factory, and farm in the state combined. The power plant in Centralia, now scheduled to phase out coal-burning, emits about 10 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. All the activity in the entire city of Seattle emits less than 7 million tons.

As Power points out, lower prices may encourage China to build more coal-burning power plants than they otherwise would, an investment that would lock in elevated coal burning and pollution for decades to come.

On Thursday the Port of St. Helens located along the Columbia river north of Portland in a rushed decision made in secret gave the go ahead to the coal export developers proposal mentioned above. This comes from the Oregonian.

Port of St. Helens approves coal export agreements with two companies By Scott Learn Port of St. Helens commissioners have approved agreements with two companies that want to export coal, adding to the scramble to ship coal to Asia through Northwest ports. The commissioners voted in favor of coal export -- potentially up to 38 million tons a year -- Wednesday night after testimony from supporters touting the job potential and from opponents with concerns about environmental impacts and increased train and barge traffic.

Opponents expected the commission to hear proposals from the two companies, considered publicly for the first time Wednesday, but not to vote on agreements. Instead the commissioners held a closed executive session, then endorsed the agreements to export coal through the port's Port Westward industrial park in Clatskanie. Gov. John Kitzhaber earlier requested "an open, vigorous public debate" before coal export projects move forward, opponents noted. But the agreements were hammered out in secret, said Laura Stevens, organizer with the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign.

And so the export expansion begins with port officials showing their contempt for the the concerns voiced by an majority of those at the public hearing. preceding the Port Commissars decision made behind closed doors.

Coal Fuels a Fight in Oregon By JOEL MILLMAN Opponents have set their sights on several proposed terminals that would facilitate the shipment of coal mined in the Rocky Mountains to countries such as China that allow the type of coal-burning power generation that the Pacific Northwest has curtailed. Last year, a coalition blocked development of a $100 million coal-export terminal at the Columbia River port of Longview, Wash., by challenging the permitting process that had allowed construction to begin. This month, those same activists filed a petition to stop work on the harbor at Coos Bay on Oregon's coast, then mobilized opposition to two coal projects proposed for the Port of St. Helens, 48 miles downstream of Portland.

While the Ambre project emphasized the use of covered barges to minimize land-dwellers' exposure to coal dust for moving coal down to St. Helens each year, Kinder Morgan representatives said they were aware that their even-larger project dependent on rail cars would require quite a bit of community input.

Building a Coal Mega Port at Cherry Point would mean a huge increase in train traffic on a route that travels through the cities and towns of Western Washington. The procession of 18 or 20 mile and a half long coal trains every day, would effectively cut communities like Marysville Wa. in half much of the time with the arterial streets that connect the two sides of town frequently being blocked at the railroad crossings by the constant passage of slow moving coal trains. Then then is the coal dust from the open rail cars that will coat the route in toxic black dust.

These proposed coal mega ports and the smaller coal export projects aren't just an issue for us in the Pacific Northwest, its an issue for all Americans, and indeed for the all the people of the planet.

Also see James Wells' post for a detailed local take on SSA's proposed Cherry Point coal mega port: Pretty much the dumbest idea ever