Public Hearing - EISs for the Proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal ...

11/3/2012
1 The EIS scoping must quantify the cumulative
2 social, economic and environmental impacts of
3 increased global warming incurred by people around the
4 world from greenhouse gas emissions produced in
5 shipping and combusting of the coal associated with
6 the terminal, and explicitly determine who will pay
7 costs associated with these impacts.
8 Coal produces more carbon dioxide per unit
9 of electricity generated than any other fuel. With
10 hurricane Sandy, we have witnessed yet another super
11 storm consistent with global warming. This storm
12 alone has left 180 people dead and an estimated
13 $50 billion in damages. The global warming impact
14 from 48 million tons of coal per year from the
15 proposed terminal is clearly both significant and
16 unavoidable.
17 The argument has been raised that scoping
18 for this project should not include global warming
19 impacts since the same amount of coal would be burned
20 anyway. This argument falls apart easily under
21 scrutiny. Flood the Asian markets with cheap U.S.
22 coal that is strip mined from our federal lands at
23 pennies on the dollar, and the price of coal will go
24 down and consumption will go up.
25 The EIS must consider long-term effects such
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