Guest opinion: War on coal threatens jobs - Sat, 26 May 2012 PST

May 26, 2012 in Opinion

Don C. Brunell

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Activists waging a national war on coal have turned their sights on the Pacific Northwest, targeting proposed shipping terminals in Washington and Oregon that would export coal to?China.

They?re aggressively lobbying federal officials to change how these projects are evaluated. If they succeed, our economy could become a casualty of the war on?coal.

Currently, such projects undergo a rigorous environmental review known as an Environmental Impact Statement involving months or even years of public hearings and analysis by federal, state and county regulators. The EIS for each project must also examine the cumulative impacts of other potential activities in the?area.

But opponents want to insert a second, more expansive layer of environmental review, which some are calling a Programmatic EIS, which would have to be completed before each individual project EIS could begin. This additional review would include all of the Washington and Oregon proposals and expand to analyze their potential ?cumulative? economic and environmental impacts across the region, the United States or perhaps the?world.

A PEIS is historically reserved for assessing the broad national impacts of a federal action or a new federal policy. But the activists want to apply that same scope of review to a local shipping?terminal.

For example, what would be the collective impacts on air, water, wildlife and so on, if all the proposals are built? And what are the additional environmental impacts of the coal mines in Wyoming and Montana? What are the additional environmental impacts along the rail lines from the mines to the terminals? How about the environmental impacts of shipping the coal to Asia? Or the global impact of Asia burning U.S.?coal??

Opponents argue that all of these issues should be part of an additional environmental?review.

Couldn?t happen? Think?again.

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, the Washington state Department of Ecology, the Region 10 office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the city of Seattle and the Yakama Nation are among those urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to change the rules. They want the Corps to conduct a special analysis of the so-called cumulative effects of all the proposed?terminals.

Even if this extra layer of analysis didn?t ultimately block the projects, it would delay them for years. The opponents? presumed goal is to create delay and legal gridlock, making it so difficult, time-consuming and expensive that the backers ultimately give?up.

Call it ?death by a thousand?lawyers.?

Eric Johnson, executive director of the Washington Public Ports Association, agrees that these projects should undergo rigorous review. ?However,? he notes, ?this review should be of the project itself, not of the overall system of commerce across our region, the United States, or as urged by some commenters, the entire?world.?

Johnson warns that requiring an additional layer of analysis for these projects would set a dangerous precedent in a state where one of every three jobs is linked to trade. ?If this precedent is applied to all products imported and exported through our port transportation system, we will bog our project review timeline down in needless?process.?

Consider the?possibilities.

Want to expand an aircraft manufacturing facility? Why not require the study of the pollution impacts of all of the manufacturer?s subcontractors worldwide? Why not examine the greenhouse gas effects of jet engine exhaust around the?globe?

Would it ever go this far? No one knows for sure, but would you want to take that?chance??

For employers trying to decide whether to locate or expand their business in the Northwest, the uncertainty is enough to convince them to take their business ? and their jobs ??elsewhere.

Don Brunell is the president of the Association of Washington?Business.

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