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Snohomish County News
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Coal trains for Cherry Point terminal would require more rails, limit access to Boulevard Park
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ED: BNSF has a bottleneck and they want Bellingham to pay $104M to fix it so the Bellingham can choke on coal dust. What's wrong with this picture.
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Getting coal trains to and from a proposed Cherry Point export pier would require construction of a long rail siding that could eliminate Boulevard Park vehicle access and cause other waterfront disruptions in the city.
That was the key finding in a report prepared by Transit Safety Management, a large railroad consulting firm that has worked with the Washington State Department of Transportation and public agencies in a number of states and countries. Its work was commissioned by Communitywise Bellingham, a group formed to gather information on SSA Marine's proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal coal and bulk cargo project.
Communitywise Bellingham gave a preliminary report on the findings to City Council on Monday, May 7. Though the councilmembers didn't have too many questions about the report at the meeting, they said it's something they're going to study further.
Drawing on previous studies of the rail improvements that would be needed to increase Amtrak rail passenger service between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., the consultants noted that Bellingham is in the middle of a significant rail bottleneck between BNSF Railway Co. sidings in Bow and Ferndale.
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State seeks wide-ranging review of all coal terminals in NW, including Cherry Point
Coal terminals from Coos Bay, Ore., to Cherry Point will have combined impacts on the environment that require their own formal study, a state agency said.
The Washington Department of Ecology on Monday, May 7, requested a regional review of as many as six coal terminal projects that could be built in Washington and Oregon. The agency's position came in a comment on an application for a coal export facility in Port of Morrow, Ore., south of Kennewick. Ecology asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take a "hard look" at combined impacts such as increased rail traffic, coal dust and diesel pollution.
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Unexpected wind gust stirs up coal dust at Roberts Bank
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Roberts Bank is south of Vancouver, B.C. That is where the coal that now passes through Washington State is loaded on ships for China.
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What's being described as an "absolute freak incident" at Westshore Terminals coal port Thursday afternoon caused a cloud of coal dust to briefly hover over the area.
Westshore general manager Denis Horgan said Friday that a sudden and unexpected gust of wind sent coal dust flying.
Horgan said the company takes wind very seriously and monitors it throughout the day and there was no indication of any high winds coming on Thursday afternoon.
He said wind speeds were at around 10 kilometres per hour or below throughout the day when, at around 4:20 p.m., a sudden gust of 45 km/h hit the area.
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When Global Warming Hits Home (Literally)
On a recent PBS documentary, the mayor of Norfolk, Virginia, Paul Fraim, talks about how flooding has become a monthly occurrence in his town, and how global warming and sea level rise are as much a daily issue for him as education and fighting crime. In some parts of Norfolk, streets turn into rivers at high tide. Homes are flooded five out of six years. People lose their carpets, their appliances, their savings. And they can't afford to move elsewhere.
Sea levels have risen 14 inches in Norfolk since 1930–almost double the global rate. Part of this alarming change is due to the natural sinking of the area's soggy tidal lands, but part of it is due to the rising sea levels brought about by global warming. Like stranded polar bears in the North Pole, like disappearing island nations in the Pacific, waterlogged Norfolk is yet another symbol of global warming at work. And even though Norfolk is within spitting distance of our nation's capital, Congress still hasn't seemed to grasp the seriousness of the situation.
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Phoenix considered example for U.S. in solar energy
The U.S. Dept. of Energy considers the Solar Phoenix Project the best of its kind.
The project allows homeowners to lease solar panels, and then their utility company installs those panels for free. Phase One of the project put panels on 500 homes back in 2009. On Tuesday, Mayor Greg Stanton was joined by the U.S Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, in starting Phase Two of the project.
Now, Solar Phoenix is considered the nation's largest city-sponsored residential solar financing program.
"If you are a homeowner, and you don't have this program, you have to do lot of research," said Chu. "Programs like this make it a one-stop shop, so you don't have to worry about that. You are leasing it so you don't have to pay upfront costs."
The project is a partnership between the city, APS, SRP and the National Bank of Arizona. The bank foots the bills for the panels, and the two power companies install them for qualified customers. Phase One has saved the city nearly $26 million in energy costs. Phase Two will add another 1,000 homeowners. The program takes no government subsides.
National Bank of Arizona has financed about $25 million into the program.
"We want to send the message that if you are an energy entrepreneur, especially in solar, Phoenix is your place," said Stanton.
The program allows qualified Phoenix homeowners to install solar-energy systems and includes options for residents with low or moderate incomes.
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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta: ‘Climate Change Has A Dramatic Impact On National Security'
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta joined the chorus of academics, policymakers, and security analysts concerned about the "dramatic" impacts of climate change on national security.
"Rising sea levels, severe droughts, the melting of the polar caps, the more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief," said Panetta at a recent event at the Environmental Defense Fund.
While Congress continues to waver on mitigation measures and debate the science, the U.S. defense, development, and diplomacy establishments are already grappling with the impacts of climate change in their work at home and abroad.
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