first published week of: 07/11/2016
The Oakland City Council voted unanimously Monday night to kill a plan to use a proposed marine terminal to transport Utah coal to Asia, calling such shipments public health and safety hazards. Backers argued the project would bring needed jobs to an impoverished part of town.
The vote — which prompted environmental activists still in council chambers after four hours to break into applause — approved an ordinance that bans the transport, handling and storage of coal and petroleum coke at bulk material facilities or terminals in Oakland.
"We want jobs that people can have, and have a long life and they don't have to rely upon a job of desperation," said Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney after the vote. "I just believe that we can do better in Oakland." The ordinance requires a second vote.
City leaders have wrestled with the issue for more than a year, as detractors and supporters of the proposed marine terminal argued over the environmental dangers of bringing millions of tons of coal through the area and the economic benefits of good-paying union jobs.
The terminal is part of a larger makeover of an army base that closed in 1999, eliminating thousands of jobs. The proposed terminal is in West Oakland, a historically black neighborhood that's among the poorest and most polluted in the region. The council approved the project before the coal proposal was made. continued…