In his Aug. 9 letter, “Australia says thanks for the delay,” Bruce Fleming touts the use of coal, stating “coal is something we know. We used to heat with it. … Older homes in the area have coal chutes into the basement. We used to live on top of a pile of coal. We shoveled it daily.”
Our family home in Roslyn, which was a coal-mining town, used coal for heating and cooking for about 65 years. Now, every time I do any remodeling, the clouds of coal dust rain down. Even without any remodeling, the dust sifts out of the walls and the attic. It’s impossible to keep the curtains white for any length of time. The wall paint shows the stains after a short time.
My father was a coal miner. He died young from black lung disease. I, for one, would hope that Australia,South Africa,Indonesia, Russia, Columbia, Vietnam, and Venezuela would all exceed the coal exports from the United States. I do not want the coal dust from trains transiting the Gorge or from trains transiting the Cascade passes. I do not want the pollution from Chinese power plants being returned to us.
Let the other countries supply the coal.
Dan Banks
Vancouver
