Coal port scrubbed: 3 down, 3 to go

[pscot]

Coal giant Kinder Morgan is abandoning its plans to export coal from a terminal at the Port of St. Helens on the Columbia River.

That brings the number of publicly proposed export terminals in the Northwest down to three — half the number under consideration a year ago.

............

The Port Westward terminal was the third-largest terminal under consideration in the Northwest. That’s behind the Millenium Bulk Terminal in Longview, Wash. and the Gateway Pacific Terminal near Bellingham, Wash.

Those two terminals are still being considered, along with a third: the Morrow Pacific project. It calls for coal to be transported by train to the Port of Morrow near the Eastern Oregon town of Boardman on the Columbia River. From there the coal would be put on barges and floated to the Port of St. Helens and then transferred to ocean-going ships.

In the past nine months, coal companies and other investors have dropped plans to build coal export terminals on the south Oregon Coast near Coos Bay and near Hoquiam, Wash. at the Port of Grays Harbor




http://earthfix.kuow.org/energy/article/coal-company-drops-plans-for-export-terminal-on-co/

[limpyhobbler]

1. A lot of these fossil fuel acceleration projects are only marginally profitable.

Sometimes even a small amount of activism, a few news stories and just a little controversy can make the marginal difference needed to tip the balance and stop one of these projects.

US Coal exports to China are a disgusting idea and ought to be stopped right away.

[pscot]

2. The Australians are pushing this

They have the markets and have already turned Oz into an inferno.

[limpyhobbler]

3. Hopefully the Australian people will start pushing back against the insanity.

I was just googling a little about Australian coal and saw this...

Australia’s Coal Reserves Alone Could Take Up 75 Percent Of What We Can Still Risk Burning

The coal that will likely be developed just in Australia could take up 75 percent of what the world can still burn while staying under two degrees Celsius of global warming. That’s according to the latest report from the Carbon Tracker Initiative (CTI).

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/29/1937601/australias-coal-reserves-alone-could-take-up-75-percent-of-what-we-can-still-risk-burning/