Great news! In June, the US Supreme Court denied a petition to overturn Washington State's 2017 denial of water quality permits for Millennium Bulk Terminals' proposed coal export facility in Longview, WA. Multiple courts at the state and federal levels have now held that Washington State was within its rights to protect public health and safety from the increased air and water pollution that would have come with transporting coal along the Columbia River. With the Supreme Court's dismissal of this final legal appeal, this is the official end of this coal export proposal.
It took years and years of organizing in partnership with Tribal Nations, health experts, environmental, faith, and community groups from across the Pacific Northwest and High Plains to achieve this victory. It could not have happened without your support.
“As a practicing physician who lives in Longview along with my children and grandchildren, I see the harmful impacts of pollution every day,” said Stephen Chandler, MD, an oncology and hematology doctor based in Longview. “Along with thousands of health care professionals, I believe that the Millennium coal project should never be constructed due to significant human health concerns. From cancers to asthma and strokes, our community cannot bear more of these burdens. If this project had been built, the increase in cancer rates expected in the Highlands neighborhood would mean more lives unnecessarily cut short. And more times we’d need to deliver bad news to distraught patients and their families. Harm would not be limited to Longview but would degrade Cowlitz County, the Columbia River, tribes that rely on the river, and all communities along the rail lines. Now we have hope for a better future.”
Read from other Longview residents and health professionals on this great news.
We could not do this work and secure these kinds of victories without your support. Will you make a donation to Oregon PSR today to support our ongoing efforts to resist fossil fuels and advance a just transition to clean energy?