(Shutterstock)

Many of our legal team’s victories in defense of the environment or human health have lasting impacts that will be felt by future generations. But a new study from Washington State University suggests that our successful legal campaign to end the use of the dangerous agricultural fungicide vinclozolin will indeed pay dividends for years to come.

A bison, but not one of the 27 bison transported back to Yellowstone.

A group of 27 bison occupying privately owned grazing lands outside of Yellowstone National Park’s western border were detained by authorities on May 24. The group of animals included 12 newborn calves, 12 mothers, and three juveniles.

The Montana Department of Livestock led the raid with support from the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks; the National Park Service; the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service; and the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office. The bison were rounded up into a trap, placed on livestock trailers, and transported back inside park boundaries. They were released on their own recognizance into the Fountain Flats area. The raid was conducted following six weeks of surveillance and hazing that had been unsuccessful in persuading the bison to peaceably disperse and acknowledge the private property rights of landowners in the Yellowstone region.

All joking aside, whatever happened to wild animals being, you know, wild? And, for that matter, when did being a wild animal become illegal?

Trains transport coal to export terminals in open cars, a mile-and-a-half long. (Shutterstock)

(Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of blog posts by the author on issues related to proposed coal exporting from the Northwest.)

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."

—John Muir

We are often reminded—perhaps nowhere more profoundly than in nature—that life does not persist solely of its own volition. When we look closer, we invariably find that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In German, the phenomenon is called gestalt—the notion of the unified whole.

This is the proper lens through which to analyze the increasingly controversial issue of coal export in the Pacific Northwest. With domestic demand for coal waning in the United States, coal companies seek to ship as much coal as possible from Montana and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin to emerging Asian economies. Thus, there are six coal export terminal projects currently proposed for Pacific Northwest ports: Longview, Wash.; Bellingham, Wash.; Grays Harbor, Wash.; Coos Bay, Ore.; the Kinder Morgan terminal at Port of St. Helens, Ore.; and the Ambre Energy project with facilities at the Port of Morrow and the Port of St. Helens, Ore.

An environmental analysis examining each project in piecemeal fashion would not address the overall cumulative impacts to the region’s environmental health and quality of life. The cumulative impacts of the proposed coal export terminals would be significant:

A 129-car BNSF coal train going through White Rock, B.C. (Michael Chu)

Warren Buffett is a famous gazillionaire who owns a railroad company known as BNSF Railway. BNSF Railway operates trains that transport coal from Montana and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin to shipping ports on the coast of British Columbia. The coal that is shipped via Buffett’s railway to the B.C. coast eventually gets put on big boats and sent across the Pacific to China where it is burned in poorly regulated coal power plants. These poorly regulated coal power plants emit enormous amounts of pollution that harm human health and exacerbate climate change.

All sounds pretty crummy, eh?

Fortunately, a brave group of Canadians aren’t intimidated. British Columbians for Climate Action has planned a coal protest for May 5 in White Rock, B.C. That’s where Buffett’s BNSF trains travel en route to the coal export facility at Westshore Terminals near Roberts Bank, B.C. The Canadian activists explain their upcoming action:

We're doing this because we have to. The science is solid: within the decade, if we don't work hard we are going to run out of time to avoid runaway global warming. It's not enough anymore just to go to rallies, write letters, and shut off our lights for an hour once a year. We're aware of what is at stake, and we have a moral obligation to do our best to stop the things that are destroying the planet.

Photo: USDA

Do you like to eat strawberries grown without cancer-causing fumigants? You do! Well then, have I got some news for you!

Last night, Arysta LifeScience, the producer of the toxic fumigant methyl iodide (sold under the sunny corporate nomenclature “Midas”) announced it is pulling its product—designed for use primarily in strawberry fields—off the U.S. market. The announcement comes as the California Superior Court was about to issue its decision in an Earthjustice lawsuit aimed at stopping the use of the dangerous chemical.

“All Americans are safer today because of the removal of the cancer-causing farm chemical methyl iodide,” said Earthjustice attorney Greg Loarie, who argued the case in court. “American agriculture can be highly productive without having to use chemicals like methyl iodide that threaten not only those who work in our fields, but also anyone who lives within miles of them, with cancer. This is a chemical that never should have been allowed in the first place and we’re thankful that our combined efforts resulted in the chemical company pulling this dangerous compound off the American market.”

They’re baaack!

The shipping and logistics company Millennium Bulk Terminals last week filed applications for federal, state and county permits to build a coal export terminal in Longview, Wash. Last year, Millennium withdrew its permit applications to build a coal export facility in Longview after Earthjustice attorneys uncovered internal company memos discussing secret plans to exponentially expand the facility’s capacity once the terminal was constructed.

The uncovered memos left Millennium with a public relations black eye and resulted in the departure of the company’s chief executive officer. Millennium’s initial proposal publicly stated the terminal’s shipping capacity at 5 million tons per year, although the company’s internal documents revealed plans to expand the capacity to 60 million tons annually. Now, Millennium’s new project proposes shipping 44 million tons of coal annually to Asia via Longview.

This week, Monterey County, California gave a better-than-roses Valentine’s Day present to its roughly 415,000 residents. Following in the footsteps of Santa Cruz County, its neighbor to the north, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors voted to ask Gov. Jerry Brown to review the approval of the toxic fumigant methyl iodide.

Methyl iodide, a known carcinogen, is most threatening to the men and women who work in California’s strawberry fields where the majority of the pesticide will be applied. Those farm workers risk eye irritation, nausea, central nervous system disorders, late-term miscarriages and cancer. California accounts for about 80 percent of the nation’s strawberry crop, and Monterey and Santa Cruz counties are home to a large portion of the state’s strawberry farms.

(Shutterstock)

Each time a new coal export terminal is proposed at a Pacific Northwest port, industry promises to take appropriate measures to protect the surrounding environment and community from the terminal’s inherent pollution. The harmful effects of coal dust blowing into communities from enormous coal piles and trains carrying coal in open boxcars while spewing coal dust will be mitigated, terminal investors tell the public. All environmental and health issues will be taken care of, the project’s backers’ contend—there’s nothing to worry about, just let industry handle everything.

But actions speak louder than words. Case in point: Australia.

Coos Bay, Oregon. (Brian Burger/Creative Commons)

A new battle has emerged in the fight over proposed coal export terminals in the Pacific Northwest.

The Oregon Department of State Lands recently issued a permit allowing the Port of Coos Bay to conduct the largest dredging project in an estuary in state history. The permit allows for dredging of the first 1.75 million cubic yards (mcy) of a 5.6-mcy project.

The reason for the massive dredging effort: Coos Bay—a town of about 16,000 people on the remote southern Oregon coast—has been targeted for construction of a coal export terminal and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility.

Earthjustice, representing a coalition of local residents, grassroots environmental, and clean-energy groups, in early January filed an appeal of the Oregon Department of State Lands’ decision to green light the $100 million project. While the “multi-purpose” dredging permit was initially sought to develop an LNG import terminal, the Port of Coos Bay recently entered into a confidential agreement with an undisclosed coal export company seeking to send coal overseas to Asia, and LNG backers have changed their plans to now export domestic gas instead.

The Hetch Hetchy Valley. (Photo: Sam Edmondson)

Everyone knows that Yosemite National Park is one of America’s most beautiful places. Half Dome, El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, and a host of other natural wonders make Yosemite an iconic symbol of the American West. And while many of us have hiked in Yosemite or camped in the picturesque valley, a new video reveals a deeper layer of beauty and awe.

Videographers Sheldon Neill and Colin Delehanty have collaborated to create a stunning time-lapse, high-definition look at Yosemite. The video, titled Project Yosemite, captures sunrises and sunsets, stars swirling about the night sky, and trees trembling in high mountain winds.