A dispute over a proposed coal export terminal in Oakland has escalated into a broader clash between California and Wyoming officials, after Gov. Gavin Newsom last month signed a bill adding new environmental review requirements that supporters of the project say are designed to stop it before it opens.
The terminal would be the West Coast’s first coal export facility, intended to ship Wyoming coal to international buyers. In a joint opinion piece published by Fox News, U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis and U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, both Wyoming Republicans, said the project had already cleared California’s environmental review process and drawn hundreds of millions of dollars in investment, including more than $240 million from California taxpayers. They said the City of Oakland moved to advance the terminal’s development after years of litigation that developers won.
President Trump backed the project this summer with $75 million in funding through the Defense Production Act, according to the lawmakers. They wrote that California Democrats introduced the new review bill immediately after that announcement, and said the bill’s author described it as a way to block coal and oppose the president.
Lawmakers call it a pattern
Lummis and Hageman argued that retroactively adding regulatory hurdles to an already-approved project sets a troubling precedent for anyone building in California, regardless of their views on coal. They warned that if state lawmakers can void a permit because they object to a product or the federal official who supports it, future targets could include oil refineries, manufacturing plants or housing developments.
The two also pointed to Newsom’s decision, on the same day he signed the coal bill, to veto separate legislation that would have sped up hiring of auditors for California’s high-speed rail project. They noted the rail project has cost an estimated $15 billion over 18 years without laying a mile of track, and that voters were originally promised a Los Angeles-to-San Francisco line by 2020 for $33 billion. Current estimates put the cost between $126 billion and $231 billion, with completion not expected until 2040, they wrote. Last year, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revoked $4 billion in federal grants for the project; Newsom sued and lost, according to the lawmakers.
Wyoming’s response
Lummis and Hageman said Wyoming sits atop more than 600 years of coal reserves and that rising electricity demand across Asia will keep driving coal consumption regardless of California’s policies. They argued the only real question is which country’s coal fills that demand.
Wyoming will not sit quietly while California politicians attempt to shut our energy producers out of global markets.
The lawmakers said Wyoming is prepared to use
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