Search Results
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Ambre Energy: Caveat Investor
While some of the other players in the coal export game are relatively well known, there’s surprisingly little reliable information in circulation in the Northwest about Ambre Energy. The company’s history, its track record, and its finances remain something of a mystery to the businesses and communities that would be affected by their coal export proposals, and to decision-makers who are deciding how to navigate the controversy. Because there’s so...Read more » -
Ambre Energy: Caveat Investor
Would-be coal exporter Ambre Energy faces mounting financial, regulatory and other challenges that make it highly unlikely that the company will deliver on its promises.Read more » -
Arch Coal backs out of Longview export terminal
And another one bites the dust… Starting six years ago, Washington and Oregon found themselves besieged by a flotilla of massive, well-financed companies hell-bent on building coal export terminals to feed Asia’s allegedly insatiable appetite for coal. But the coal industry’s vision of a robust export market turned out to be a mirage: starting in early 2011, international coal prices peaked and then collapsed for five consecutive years. One by one, as the Asian coal...Read more » -
Northwest Coal Exports: What to Expect in 2016
In 2016, the debate over Northwest coal exports will heat up again. Of the six projects originally targeted for Oregon and Washington, all but two have died. And these two—terminals that would be the first and second largest in North America—will come up for public review this year when the government agencies reviewing them will publish Draft Environmental Impact Statements. These documents are the first opportunity for the public to...Read more » -
Top 10 of 2015
Wow, what a big year for Sightline! We helped pass a historic democracy reform initiative in Seattle, dove into urban policy issues to create more affordable housing, and continued our fight towards making polluters pay in Cascadia and beyond. Plus, the Thin Green Line grew stronger than ever this year, thanks to Sightline exposing the torrent of terrible financial news for the coal industry, our continuous leading research on oil...Read more » -
The Thin Green Line Is Stopping Coal and Oil in Their Tracks
“Everybody outside the Northwest thinks that’s where energy projects go to die.” That’s the reputation our region has earned as an increasing number of proposed coal and oil export projects have encountered ferocious opposition. It’s what the backer of a proposed oil refinery in Longview, Washington, told reporters earlier this year after his company’s stealth proposal was outed by environmental groups. The Cascadia region has proven to be extraordinarily challenging...Read more » -
Accomplishments
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Washington Senate Endorses Socialism for Coal
First Wyoming, now Washington: the state Senate has endorsed an $85 million handout to the coal industry, in the form of a rail project whose sole identifiable beneficiary is the proposed and highly controversial Millennium Bulk Terminals coal export project in Longview, Washington. The rail crossing project, innocuously labeled in the legislative record as the “SR 432 Longview Grade Crossing,” would build a massive vehicle overpass over a rail line near the banks of the...Read more » -
Columbia River Ship Traffic: the Impact of Coal and Oil Plans
Like the Salish Sea, the Columbia River is threatened by the risks of oil spills. If you need proof of the risk, look no further than the historical record of major spills or the dozens of recent close calls on the river. In fact, the Coast Guard sector responsible for the region that includes Grays Harbor plus the Columbia and Snake Rivers responds to 275 oil pollution incidents in a...Read more » -
Coal Export Markets in Freefall
For more than two years, the US coal industry has predicted that international coal prices would soon rebound, breathing new life into coal export and mining proposals that are now languishing on financial life support. But despite the industry’s hopes, the bottom keeps falling out of the global coal market. Market conditions for Pacific Rim coal exporters are now worse than they’ve been since the depths of the global recession....Read more »