Washington State residents staged rallies to protest the Coal Terminal proposal that will be stationed in the area. Forty-four million tons of coal will be hauled to the state by train from coal mines in Wyoming, Montana, and other states. Locals fear the risk of cancer, increased traffic, noise pollution, and the dangers that coal will bring. They also demand to stop coal consumption as the volume of shipment to coal-hungry economies in Asia will raise greenhouse gasses emissions to two million tons per year once coal is combusted.
As President Donald Trump orders the reopening of coal mines in the US, nationwide protests took their disappointments to the streets braving bad weather conditions. The Washington Coal Terminal is an indicator that coal mining is back in the U.S.
Environmentalists, tribes and other global warming advocates are fiercely in protest of the Washington Coal Terminal. 40 percent of the coal mined locally are for export. The fear of the effect of global warming and climate change is here and they do not want any more greenhouse gas emission to the atmosphere, reports ABC News.
The Environment Protection Agency said that permitting coal mines to operate once again is like allowing climate change to take over the country. Global warming will have disastrous effects to every living creature on this planet.
Coal has its own harmful properties contributing 44 percent CO2 emissions on a global scale. The top producer of coal is the US, China, and India. Nearly 70 countries have coal deposits in their backyards. Coal has the highest carbon content spewed into the atmosphere when combusted and remains a major source of energy in the US.
Physics.Org reports that the environmental Review of the State Department of Washington and the County of Cowlitz filed 23 environmental issues and 19 of these are harmful to people and its surroundings. Maia Bellon, Ecology Department Director added that most of the environmental issues filed cause health problems.
Millennium CEO Bill Chapman released a statement saying that the project will be designed with full consideration to protect air, fish and wildlife, water quality, people, and groundwater. But a local Indian tribe is urging the Army Corps of Engineers to reject the Washington Coal Terminal project saying that it is a threat to their way of life, culture, and for future generations.
