FTW! Oregon Rejects Coal Exports and Helps Wild Orcas!

Recently, the Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL) made the landmark decision to reject the permit that would give the go-ahead for Ambre Energy’s Morrow Pacific coal export project. This rejection will keep Pacific Northwest waterways safe from coal Pollution and protect the habitat of endangered orca populations that depend on Oregon’s clean waterways.

The project would have orchestrated an annual exportation of about 8.8 million tons of coal to Asia. Furthermore, researchers estimated that these export facilities would increase carbon emissions to the same degree as adding “approximately 35 million new passenger cars to the road.”

An increase in carbon will significantly damage the population of prey species that orca whales rely on for nutrition, thus leading to a decline in orca populations along the west coast.

The Columbia River (main location desired for coal export terminals) is currently expecting to see the largest run of Chinook salmon since 1938. Healthy salmon populations help feed other forms of wildlife, the main one being killer whales. Coal export facilities would serve as an obstruction in the migration paths of young salmon trying to swim from the river to the ocean. Many individual fish would be unable to survive, thus impacting the food stocks of whales.

The Oregon DSL said that in their proposal, Ambre Energy did not consider any alternatives that would, “avoid harming tribal fisheries at the Port of Morrow in Boardman, where the company had proposed to build a dock to load coal onto barges.”

The National Wildlife Federation explains further  that the project, “would unreasonably interfere with the paramount policy of this state to preserve the use of its waters for navigation, fishing, and public recreations.”

For this reason, the permit was denied which makes it the first formally rejected coal exporting permit in the history of the Pacific Northwest. The West Coast has become a hub for coal exports over the past few years, and this decision impedes upon any future progress that this harmful project would offer towards the environment of the Pacific Northwest.

At One Green Planet, we are more than thrilled to hear about the DSL’s decision in rejecting the project; however, we cannot say the same of Ambre Energy.

According to spokeswoman Liz Fuller, “We are evaluating our next steps and considering the full range of legal and permitting options.”

Ambre now has 21 days to file for an appeal before an administrative law judge, and we hope that their attempts at advancing are in vain.

Image source: Robert Pittman/Wikimedia Commons