Peabody Energy is proposing to send slow-moving coal trains through Vancouver for shipment to China. Each train will be 1.5 miles long and impact waterfront residents with noise, congestion and sometimes coal dust, which coats lawn furniture and window sills. Actually, it will be trains full of coal and other trains returning empty. Not just in Clark County but also in Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle and Bellingham.
Is it wise to export coal to China at a time when we and the rest of the world have decided that coal burning is harmful and should be reduced? On one hand, Peabody will say these shipments are protected by the Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution. On the other hand, the same Constitution says all power belongs to the people.
The city council of Pittsburgh, Pa., has asserted people’s rights, defied the Commerce Clause, and banned natural-gas fracking. Residents in Bellingham have drafted a similar rights-based ordinance to stop coal trains. The full text can be read at http://www.coal-free-bellingham.org.
Instead of exporting their solar and wind technology to America, the Chinese should use it themselves.
