Saturday, June 30, 2012

Coal: Latest Developments

The past 10 days has seen some dramatic developments, but no big surprises regarding GPT.
These 7 links [below] highlight the main happenings, mainly regarding the No-Coal Initiative and the City's predictable response.
Some of these links have important sub links which reveal substantial relevant information, including comments from readers.

The bright spots were the remarkable degree of public awareness achieved by the Initiative's efforts at attracting supporters, plus the City's impending consideration of a Resolution that expresses concerns at the significant liabilities that may be imposed on the City and its taxpayers related to expensive mitigations for infrastructure improvements to insure public safety and reasonable access across the BNSF Railway right-of-way through the City which could seriously impact access to/from the waterfront.

The EIS effort is expected to begin shortly, meaning perhaps the main opportunity for citizens and government agencies to express their concerns is imminent.

1 Abundant coal supplies may affect economics of proposed export terminals like GPT

2 City files lawsuit to block anti-coal initiative from ballot

3 Copy of City's Complaint and Request for Injunction

4 Herald story on City's Complaint Filing

5 City Council Agenda Item Resolution for July 2 Meeting

6 Initiative Backers Response to City's Request for Declaratory Judgement

7 Short Time Magazine Article Praising US Rail Freight Virtues

Stay tuned for further developments.
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