Trump to Waste $75 Million on Oakland Coal Terminal

The Trump administration is expected to announce $75 million in taxpayer funding towards a new coal storage and handling facility in Oakland, according to reporting by Politico. The funding could be part of a larger $700 million handout to corporations to support coal infrastructure, while Californians struggle with high energy bills.

In unprecedented uses of the Defense Production Act (DPA), the Trump administration is declaring artificial emergencies to bolster the failing coal industry, which is being outcompeted by cheaper and cleaner forms of energy like wind, solar, and storage. Sierra Club reports estimate these executive coal orders will lead to thousands of premature deaths and hundreds of millions in unnecessary utility costs across the country.

In response, local groups released the following statements:

“It is unconscionable to suggest the need for coal facilities in Oakland, especially after the California Air Resources Board and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District have spent millions of dollars to reduce emissions in West Oakland under AB 617,” said Ms. Margaret Gordon, a resident founder and co-Executive Director of West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, lifetime Bay Area resident, 30-year environmental justice practitioner and member of the No Coal in Oakland Campaign. “Yes, we do have disparities in economic development and people have the right to a job to sustain themselves and their families. But the coal industry harms workers, the land and the environment. They need to take those impacts and others into consideration.”

“The administration’s move to funnel $75 million of taxpayer dollars into a polluting coal facility right on the Bay’s shoreline poses a direct threat to Oakland residents and San Francisco Bay,” said Ben Eichenberg, Senior Staff Attorney at San Francisco Baykeeper. “The developers should expect an unrelenting uphill battle. San Francisco Baykeeper and our frontline community partners will continue to use every legal, regulatory, and advocacy tool to protect the Bay and Bay Area residents from this project.”

“Residents have fought for years to keep this terminal from being built in their backyard. Trump is using the DPA, which is meant to mobilize industries during a genuine emergency, to override that opposition. This isn’t national defense, it’s an end run around local democracy,” said Sarah Ranney, Director of Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter. “This money could be used in increasing clean energy and efficiency programs that actually lower costs for working families and businesses. Instead, Trump’s wasteful handouts will continue making American energy more expensive and lock in more deadly pollution.”

“Building a toxic coal storage and handling facility in West Oakland threatens an already overburdened community with more air pollution and a multitude of health harms, including asthma attacks and increases in hospitalization and even death from heart and lung disease,” said Colin O’Brien, Deputy Managing Attorney of Earthjustice’s California Regional Office. “The residents of West Oakland deserve better and we will continue to stand with them as they resist this plan to sacrifice their health and wellbeing for a failing industry.”