Coal companies wanted to use the Columbia River to export dirty coal to Asia. You stopped them.
The people have prevailed over every coal export proposal in Oregon and Washington, thanks to relentless grassroots opposition from Northwest communities and powerful work by several Tribal Nations.
Millennium Bulk Terminals: Longview, Washington
The Millennium project would have exported up to 44 million tons of strip-mined coal per year from the Powder River Basin through Longview, Washington, to Asia. If built, Millennium would have been the largest coal export terminal in North America.
In 2017, the Washington Department of Natural Resources, the Washington Department of Ecology, and Cowlitz County denied four permits for the coal export terminal. The coal company challenged each permit denial in court (sometimes in multiple courts). Riverkeeper and our allies, represented by Earthjustice, intervened in these cases to help defend Washington's good decisions. Those cases were pending or on appeal from 2017 to 2021.
The company behind Millennium coal export filed for bankruptcy in 2020. In early 2021, a bankruptcy court canceled the company’s lease for the proposed terminal site.
In June of 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the coal company’s last remaining appeal related to the denial of permits for the Millennium coal export terminal. The high court’s decision officially ended the Millennium coal export proposal.
Millennium’s demise caps a decade of work and success opposing more than six coal export proposals that would have transformed the Columbia River into a coal chute.
Gateway Pacific Terminal: Cherry Point, Washington
After careful review, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) issued a landmark decision denying federal permits for SSA Marine’s proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal, a coal export facility at Xwe’chi’eXen, also known as Cherry Point, Washington. In January 2015, the Lummi Nation asked the Army Corps to reject the project because of its significant harm to treaty-protected fisheries and ancestral lands. The historic decision dealt a severe blow to SSA Marine’s struggling proposal and marked the first time that a coal export facility was rejected based on its negative impacts to the treaty rights of a tribal nation.
Subsequently, DNR expanded the aquatic reserve at Cherry Point to include the would-be dock site for the Gateway Pacific Terminal. SSA Marine formally withdrew its permit application for the coal project on February 7, 2017.
Visit www.PowerPastCoal.org for the latest news and updates on the coal export campaign in the Pacific Northwest.
Morrow Pacific: Port of Morrow and Port Westward, Oregon
Your commitment to blocking dirty coal export in Oregon prevailed! Ambre Energy’s proposal to barge coal down the Columbia River from the Port of Morrow to Port Westward is dead.
In 2014, the Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL) denied Ambre Energy a crucial permit to build a dock at the Port of Morrow. DSL found that allowing Ambre to build a coal dock would interfere with the existing fishery located at the proposed dock site and that “the fishery is more significant than the benefit of a coal dock.” Ambre Energy appealed, but ultimately withdrew its appeal in November 2016.
Strong and strategic opposition from tribal nations, including Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the Nez Perce Tribe, as well as The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission earned this victory. The commitment from residents across the Pacific Northwest, and the work of the Power Past Coal coalition, contributed to this victory. Thank you.
More information about the campaign to protect the Columbia from dirty coal:
- U.S. Supreme Court dismisses last legal appeal for Washington state coal export proposal, June 28, 2021
- Dirty Coal in Bankruptcy, January 13, 2021
- Federal court delays coal project’s lawsuit against Washington state, April 12, 2019
- Good News: Big Coal's Summer Shenanigans are failing, Campaign Update, August 2018
- Coal Company Loses Appeal of Water Permit Denial, press release, August 15, 2018
- How We Fight to Protect the Columbia River from Fossil Fuel Polluters --and Win, Newsletter 2018, Issue 2
- Why Does Climate Change Matter to the Columbia? Newsletter 2018, Issue 2
- Millennium Coal Loses Again, press release, April 20, 2017
- Victory Over Millennium Coal, Newsletter 2017, Issue 3
- Strike Four! Another Permit Denial for Millennium, November 15, 2017
- Washington State Delivers Third Strike to Coal Export Terminal, October 25, 2017
- Record Breaking Coal Comments: 169,000! July 27, 2017
- Proposed Coal Export Terminal in SW Washington Will Cause Significant and Long-Lasting Harm to People, Community, Climate, and Columbia River, April 2017
- Northwest Coal Terminals’ Last Stand, April 17, 2017, Sightline Institute
- Conservation Groups Intervene to Defend Washington State Against Coal Exporter’s Lawsuit, March 29, 2017
- Breaking News on Coal Export: Major Announcements from the Dept. of Natural Resources, January 3, 2017
- EPA: Federal Review of Longview Coal Export Terminal “Inadequate”, December 1, 2016
- BNSF Railway Required to Address Coal Train Pollution, November 15, 2016
- Power Past Coal Coalition Comments to US Army Corps of Engineers draft Environmental Impact Statement
- Lummi Nation Totem Pole Carvers Bring Latest Pole to Longview in Opposition to Coal Export
- UW Research: Coal Spills
- Record-Breaking Opposition to Coal
- Power Past Coal Coalition Comments on Dept. of Ecology and Cowlitz County's Draft Environmental Impact Statement
- Draft Environmental Impact Statement Comments on Millennium Coal Bulk Terminals Longview
- Over Quarter Million Public Comments Against Largest Coal Export Terminal In North America
- Millennium Coal Hearing in Longview, WA, Draws 1k+ Attendees
Riverkeeper is a proud member of Power Past Coal.
Your hard work keeps paying off. On November 14, 2017, Cowlitz County delivered another blow to the proposed Millennium coal export terminal. The Cowlitz County Hearing Examiner denied two key permits because Millennium failed to meet the requirements of the Shorelines Management Act.
