Activist Alert: Say No to Big Coal
The surge of coal trains coming from Montana and Wyoming  to Washington State ports, carrying some 150 million tons of coal a year, will create horrific local and global effects.  This pillaging of the public commons for the short term profit of multinational mining corporations is not going to be stopped without an enormous fight. This dirty coal is destined for  China and will come back to us as acid rain and climate chaos.  Please pass the word that we need immediate action against becoming a neo-colonial extraction economy.  Big Coal is trying to sell us out with a “thousands of jobs” enticement.  We’ll be left with black lung, a poisoned environment and the costs of mitigation and cleanup.
Also, a Comet Ridge Resources, a Colorado company, will drill the first exploratory well in Montesano, Grays Harbor County this month, as a first step for possible fracking in our state’s beautiful area of forested lakes.
Related news: Without much fanfare, the U.S. House passed HR 4402 to ease environmental rules and limit lawsuits on mining in the west. Â They also passed HR 4402, refusing to require royalty payments of hard rock minerals extracted from public land.
Thank goodness for activists already working on this. Â I urge you to alert your friends and to rally quickly. The links below are FYI. Â Â Please call Governor Christine Gregoire at (360) 902-4111 and urge her to ensure that Washington says NO to coal export and YES to a clean energy future.
Power Past Coal
http://crosscut.com/2012/07/12/coal-ports/109550/coal-ports-trains-seattle-edmonds-bellingham/
Coal Export Threatens the Northwest – YouTube
Millennium Bulk Logistics Longview Terminal – SourceWatch
http://climatesolutions.org/nw-states/washington/no-coal/cherry-point
Coal trains through Washington: few benefits, much to fear | Opinion | The Seattle Times
Google Image Result for http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/or/images/PRBcoalpit.JPG
http://climatesolutions.org/nw-states/washington/no-coal/wa-no-coal-petition
Cheap Coal Is Dead. Long Live Renewable Age (Part 1) | Renewable Energy News Article
http://coal-free-bellingham.org/
Coal’s Assault on Human Health | PSR
