We've been getting some excellent coverage of the Coal Hard Truth Forum which is tonight from 5:30-8:00pm at the Lincoln Center, 1316 N. Lincoln Street. NPR/KPBX. The Spovangelist. Spokesman. Center For Justice. Down To Earth. The Associate Press with stories running in MSNBC and The Seattle P-I.

I'm ready for tonight. Are you?


(Photo courtesy of Bart Mihailovich.)

I wanted to highlight a telling exceprt from the AP story:

Coal terminals have caused numerous problems at other locations, said Robin Everett, who works for the Sierra Club in Seattle.

"Coal is very toxic," she said. "At places in Canada, there is a serious problem with coal dust covering up people's homes."

A group of doctors in Whatcom County recently issued a report saying exposure to coal dust could increase asthma rates, and that a big increase in train traffic would increase noise pollution, air pollution from diesel engines and cause more injuries at crossings, Everett said.

 


 

Environmental groups in Washington and Oregon have worked hard to wean the region from its coal-fired power plants, and that work will have been in vain if trainloads of coal are shipped from Northwest ports to the Far East, Mihailovich said.

"It gets burned there and the pollution comes back on the jet stream over here," he said. "We didn't win anything."

The Spokane region will be a particular loser because the trains will move through the heart of the city, but not provide any new jobs, he said. "On the west side, they stand to benefit with jobs," he said. "In Spokane we have no benefit."

That really is the key part here: There is no economic benefit for Spokane. None. Maybe a train conductor will get hired. But that's it, folks.

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