Brooke Anderson
Earlier this week the Oakland, California, city council hosted a public hearing on the health and safety impacts of a proposed plan to bring coal through the city for export at the Oakland Global Trade and Logistics Center currently under development. More than 450 people turned out to say "no coal in Oakland."
The San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club helped turn out those huge crowds, which came from a diverse range of residents, businesses, and organizations.
Jess Dervin-Ackerman of the chapter said "no coal" speakers dominated the testimony for more than four hours, and "showed the depth and breadth of the opposition to this proposal in the community."
One of those who testified was Kwame Nitoto:
"Let's stop pretending this is coal versus jobs. It's not about that," said Nitoto, program director for Positive Communication Practices, a Bay Area agency that works with at-risk youth. "If we're going to say health and safety is a priority, don't do it. Just don't do it."
Dervin-Ackerman said the proposed port hasn't been planned well from the start. "It's been totally behind the scenes and the developer really hoped that nobody would ever find out that coal was coming through here, until it actually did," she told a local CBS station.
After all the testimony against the plan, the city council ultimately directed staff to analyze the testimony to determine if coal exports would in fact threaten the health and safety of project users and adjacent neighbors, and to come back to staff with a progress report in late October and legislative proposals by early December.
You can see more photos of the hearing here. Congrats to those who showed up to speak out against dirty coal exports!