Proposed Oakland Coal Export Terminal

Earthjustice, representing several environmental and community groups, opposes the proposed Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal's (OBOT) plan to export coal. The letter contends that coal shipment was never part of the original environmental reviews or development agreements, poses severe health risks through coal dust emissions, and lacks sufficient regulatory protections. It argues that the City of Oakland has the legal authority to prohibit coal exports to protect public health and safety without hindering the broader economic development of the former Army Base.

• The proposed coal terminal lacks necessary environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), as neither the 2002 Environmental Impact Report nor the 2012 Initial Study/Addendum analyzed the effects of shipping, handling, transporting, or burning coal.
• Coal transportation poses significant health risks due to fugitive dust; a single loaded coal car can lose 500 pounds of dust, potentially resulting in 68,300 tons of coal dust emissions from three trains per day serving the OBOT terminal.
• The development of a coal terminal would cause a massive increase in rail traffic, with at least 3-4 unit trains per day, representing a volume of coal ten times that of the existing private Levin-Richmond facility.
• There are no existing local, state, or federal regulations that mandate the use of covered rail cars or other dust control measures, such as surfactants or load profiling, for coal originating in Utah.
• The developer does not have a vested right to export coal, as the 2012 Development Agreement and TCIF application described the terminal for non-containerized bulk goods and project cargo like windmills and steel coils, and the developer explicitly denied interest in coal operations in 2013.
• The City of Oakland retains the legal authority to regulate the terminal and protect community health and safety through police powers, and such regulations are not preempted by federal rail law for activities not integrally related to rail service.

APA

Earthjustice (2015). Proposed Oakland Coal Export Terminal. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/oakland-letter-to-city-council.pdf

Chicago

Earthjustice. Proposed Oakland Coal Export Terminal. 2015. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/oakland-letter-to-city-council.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Earthjustice |title=Proposed Oakland Coal Export Terminal |date=21 September 2015 |url=https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/oakland-letter-to-city-council.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{earthjustice2015proposed, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{Proposed Oakland Coal Export Terminal}}, publisher = {Earthjustice}, year = {2015}, month = sep, url = {https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/oakland-letter-to-city-council.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }