Coal Exporters File Federal Lawsuit Against Governor Inslee

Lighthouse Resources Inc., a company trying to build one of the country's largest coal export facilities in Longview, Washington, this week filed a federal lawsuit against Governor Jay Inslee, Department of Ecology director Maia Bellon, and Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Hilary Franz.

Utah-based Lighthouse is the parent company of Millennium Bulk Terminals, which, last fall was denied a water quality permit by the Washington Department of Ecology for the coal export project. The $650 million proposal would have shipped 44 million metric tons of coal from the Columbia River to Asian markets annually, and added 16 coal trains a day through Cowlitz County.

Washington State Department of Ecology director Maia Bellon told reporters last September that there were "too many unavoidable and negative environmental impacts for the project to move forward." When the Department of Ecology denied the permit, it additionally considered the project's potential impacts in area's like air quality, vessel traffic, rail safety, noise pollution, and tribal fishing access.

The Department of Ecology Ecology's analysis pissed off the coal exporters. In the lawsuit, they claim that while the department evaluated the Millennium Bulk Terminal project using an assessment taking into account greenhouse gas emissions when the coal was burned in Asia, an environmental review for the Port of Seattle's Terminal 5 container shipping expansion limited the analysis of greenhouse gas emissions to local sources.

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2018/01/05/25681287/coal-exporters-file-federal-lawsuit-against-governor-inslee