LYNNE PEEPLES
ROCK AND
A HARD PLACE
could inject welcome economic
activity into struggling Northwest
towns and reservations. By itself, the Gateway Pacific Terminal
proposed at Cherry Point on the
Puget Sound would add approximately 1,250 permanent jobs,
including induced jobs such as
restaurant and healthcare workers, as well as 4,400 temporary
construction jobs, according to
an analysis by an industry consultant. Annual local and state
HUFFINGTON
02.09.14
tax revenues would amount to
about $11 million.
The dispute over the coal trains
is playing out in television advertisements, on the streets and inside boardrooms, town halls and
courthouses from Washington,
D.C., to Seattle. A series of hearings and protests over the last few
months have attracted thousands
of people — some donning makeshift respirators, others wearing
“Beyond Coal” T-shirts, and some
even rappelling from a bridge over
the Columbia River as a symbolic
blockade to the shipments. Still,
Carver Jewell
James
addresses
the Olympia
crowd:
“We are all
children of
the earth,”
he said. “No
means no.
No coal!”