A company that is trying to build a facility to ship coal overseas is appealing Oregon’s decision to reject a key permit for the project.
Ambre Energy, the Port of Morrow and the state of Wyoming filed the appeal with the Oregon Court of Appeals on Tuesday as the parties hope to keep the prospects of shipping coal from the West Coast to energy-hungry Asian markets alive. Getting approval for the Morrow Pacific project is key for the coal industry because it’s one of the last three remaining proposals on the coast, but the other two in Washington are viewed as having a higher environmental bar to pass.
The Oregon Department of State Lands denied the Australian company a permit needed to build a loading dock for the project, which aims to export 8.8 million tons of coal annually. The state said that building the dock would disrupt fisheries crucial to native tribes, but Ambre has rejected that claim and charged that calls to kill the project from Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber, who is up for re-election, clouded the review process.
“The permitting process for a rail-to-barge facility should be project-specific and not influenced by the commodities involved,” Ambre Energy North America CEO Everett King said. “It’s pretty clear the politics of coal overshadowed this process from the beginning.”
Ambre has proposed building a dock at the Port of Morrow in Boardman, Ore., to receive coal shipped on a barge from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana. There, the coal would be loaded onto trains inside a covered warehouse before being sent along the Columbia River to Port Westward in St. Helens, Ore., before being sent overseas.
Environmental groups and native tribes have fought that and other coal export terminal proposals, saying that coal dust flying from trains pollutes waterways and disturbs vital fisheries.
