FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wild Game Fish Conservation Washington State Seaports
International
Opposes
Coal
Shipments
via
Olympia, Washington (April 28, 2012) - Wild Game Fish Conservation International (WGFCI) opposes shipment of American coal from strip mines in the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming to China via seaports in Longview, Hoquiam and Cherry Point, near Bellingham. Arch Coal and Peabody Energy plan to ship as much as 130 million tons of coal per year through Washington State. That’s enough coal to fill more than 9,000 coal trains a year, each more than a mile long. These coal trains will travel from the Powder River Basin strip mines to Sandpoint, Idaho. From Sandpoint, they will traverse Eastern Washington to the Columbia River where they will travel west to one or more of the tree identified Washington State seaports. According to Bruce Treichler, WGFCI co-founder, “the benefits associated with the promise of a few dozen new jobs comes nowhere close to the long term costs of this proposal to human health risks and environmental impacts.” Jim Wilcox, WGFCI co-founder, states that “once the coal is burned in China to generate electricity, toxic emissions from China’s coal plants will be carried East in the atmosphere and deposited over the Pacific Ocean and North America’s precious lakes, streams, rivers and reservoirs.” Additionally, Washington’s coastal communities rely on sustainable commercial, recreational and tribal fisheries which provide hundreds of jobs while producing millions of dollars each year. It would be unwise to jeopardize Washington’s multi-billion dollar fishing industry in exchange for a politicallymotivated decision to ship American coal to China. Wild Game Fish Conservation International and our associates around planet Earth demand the protection of Washington’s wild game fish from the known and unknown impacts associated with China’s unregulated coal fired power plants.
Contact: James Wilcox Co-founder - Wild Game Fish Conservation International (360) 352-7988