Northwest Coal Exports

Coal companies are targeting the Pacific Northwest as the gateway for export terminals that would send staggering quantities of U.S. coal to China.

Faced with stagnant demand for coal in the U.S., some of the world's largest coal companies want to ship millions of tons of dirty coal per year through the Pacific Northwest to China and other Asian nations looking to feed their rapidly growing energy appetite.

Coal would be strip mined from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming -- America's largest source of coal. It would then be moved in open train cars to ports along the Columbia River and Puget Sound before being shipped overseas to be burned in Chinese coal plants. Arch Coal, Peabody Energy, and other coal ginats are trying to ship 150 million tons or more of coal per year through Washington State and Oregon. That’s enough to fill more than 10,000 trains a year, each over a mile long. 

The uncovered, coal-laden rail cars would run through sensitive ecological areas (like the Columbia River Gorge and Glacier National Park) to six proposed terminals in Oregon and Washington. Increased train and tanker traffic, air and water pollution from diesel and coal dust, carbon pollution that fuels climate change, and distrubance of wildlife habitat combine to make these proposals some of the most environmentally threatening projects in the country.

Taken together these projects represent an enormous shift toward dirty energy, in a region that is known for being clean and green. And although the fight is taking place in the Pacific Northwest, the consequences for our global climate mean that people and wildlife around the planet will be impacted by the results. 

The National Wildlife Federation is working to:

• Fight new coal mining in the Powder River Basin and prevent the permitting of new port projects on the West coast that would be needed to support increased coal exports;

• Engage with Tribal communities in the Pacific Northwest to halt or minimize the threats posed by the expansion of coal exports;

• Collaborate with sportsmen and local organizations to build a regionally powerful and nationally relevant network to combat the threat of expanded coal mining and exports on wildlife and our environment.

To learn more about our coalition's work against coal exports see powerpastcoal.org.