LETTER FROM
THE EDITOR
Left in
the Dust
N THIS WEEK’S ISSUE, Lynne Peeples
travels to the Celilo
Indian Village in Oregon, where the push for a coalexport superhighway is a growing concern for the local Native
American community.
The proposed expansion of coal
exports is part of a much larger
international narrative: While coal
use has dropped domestically as
natural gas and renewable energy
have become more commonplace,
fast-growing economies in China
and India share a demand for coal
that the U.S. can supply.
“If government agencies grant
ART STREIBER
I
approval to three export terminals
proposed for Oregon and Washington, up to 100 million metric
tons of coal per year could soon
be shuttled in open rail cars from
mines in the Powder River Basin
of Wyoming and Montana, along
the shores of the Columbia River
and the Puget Sound, and through
ranches and reservations like this
one,” Lynne writes. “The coal
would then be loaded onto ships
destined for Asia’s proliferating
fleet of coal-fired power plants.”
The affected tribes are worried about toxic coal dust rising
off passing trains, which could
HUFFINGTON
02.09.14