The number of coal export terminals proposed for Oregon and Washington has dropped from six to three. But a dozen Northwest groups aren’t backing down from their call for a regional impact study of the coal projects.
The groups filed a legal petition Wednesday with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They want the corps to study the environmental impacts of transporting coal by train and barge from mines in Montana and Wyoming to shipping terminals.
Kimberly Larson is with Power Past Coal. “We don’t think that you can look at any of these one proposals with blinders on and not consider the other two because there is a lot of communities that will experienced the impacts from all the proposals. Not just within Washington and Oregon boundaries.”
A spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers says it has not received the petition yet.
If the corps does not respond to the petition, the groups say they will ask a federal court to intervene.
Copyright 2013 Earthfix