Bellingham, WA Not Happy Being Waystation for Coal Bound for China

Here’s an NPR spot on Bellingham, WA and their new rail terminal that will facilitate the shipment of enormous quantities of coal from Montana and Wyoming to China. Understandably, locals are not happy. Though some folks are salivating over the jobs that will be directly associated with building and operating the terminal, others fear a loss of tourism, as this historically pristine and eco-conscious spot loses its charm and becomes a temporary home to trains of coal cars, each one over a mile long, running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Proponents assure community activists that all sorts of high technology will be deployed to minimize the coal dust that would otherwise coat the landscape and nearby Puget Sound. But most Bellinghamians aren’t thrilled to see their town become noisier, and associated with the dirtiest of all forms of energy.

It certainly does seem a shame that mankind can’t find a better way to conduct itself than mining coal out of the middle of the United States, shipping it by rail to Bellingham, and putting it on barges bound for China, where it will be burned in plants that belch forth their deadly fumes.