If somebody hasn’t already told Port Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Surrey Docks people the news, they can always read it here.
JPMorgan Chase has announced it will no longer finance new coal-fired plants in the U.S. or other advanced nations. The Bank of America, CitiGroup and Morgan Stanley were already on this wagon in backing away from coal investments. Others are expected to follow. And then two weeks ago, according to the New York Times, Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon signed legislation that requires the state’s two largest utilities to stop importing out-of-state coal-generated power by 2030.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to take action to reduce climate change and, if we were to hazard a guess, we’d think that coal would be one of the things he wouldn’t be trying to burn more of or sell more of.
The U.S. has also suspended new coal leasing on federal lands, reducing the potential supply of coal.
Will this change the Fraser Surrey Docks plan, approved by Port Metro Vancouver, to build and operate a direct transfer coal facility? If it hasn’t, it certainly should.
Even if you put aside the much-reported health concerns about placing a coal facility across from New Westminster, the fact that the facility is being built for a product that has no future, should raise some red flags.
The people touting the Fraser Surrey Docks facility said the coal was being shipped to China to keep the poor children there warm.
Aside from the fact that those kids can hardly breath the air there now, it seems like a rather short-term gain plan. Even China is moving to solar power in an effort to have a more profitable and sustainable economy.
Cynics have suggested the coal facility proposal was just a trial balloon for something else. The idea being that if plans for the facility are now dropped, folks will be happy to accept almost any alternative plan not involving coal.
This sounds a bit machiavellian. But we suppose it’s not completely unthinkable given that we thought the Port could never in the first place have justified approving the coal facilty, which it did.
In any case, we still would like to encourage everyone to rethink this foolhardy plan.
Imagine building a coal facility when there’s no coal production and no place to ship it. It could happen.
