SACRAMENTO — State Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Monday stood behind the city of Oakland’s fight to stop a developer from transporting coal through a terminal being built on the former Oakland Army Base.
Oakland is currently appealing a federal judge’s decision in May, which found that the city — by banning the transportation and handling of coal within city limits — violated its development agreement with Phil Tagami and the Oakland Bulk Oversized Terminal project.
Tagami sued in late 2016, months after the Oakland City Council voted to approve the ban.
On Monday, Becerra filed court documents in support of the city’s appeal and urged the Ninth District Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the coal prohibition. The attorney general, in his court brief, argued the city had a right to apply new regulations that protect residents from health risks to the 2013 agreement with Tagami.
“The California Department of Justice stands by the city of Oakland, which took an important step to protect its residents,” Becerra said in a statement. “The transportation of coal from the terminal would disproportionately hurt communities of color already burdened by pollution and its consequent health effects, such as asthma and cancer. We are committed to advance environmental justice wherever possible in our state.”
The $250 million project near the Bay Bridge toll plaza became the subject of community backlash after the city learned Utah coal companies planned to transport their project by rail to Oakland where it would be stored and shipped to Asia.
Attorneys for Tagami argued the city could not change its 2013 development agreement, which did not specify which goods could or could not be shipped through the proposed marine terminal and logistics center. In additional to the federal suit, Tagami and OBOT earlier this month filed a state superior court suit alleging Oakland intentionally interfered with the project. The suit asks the court to force Oakland to “honor commitments or pay damages.”
Six community and environmental groups joined Becerra in defending Oakland. The organizations filing a joint court brief are: West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Communities for a Better Environment, West Oakland Neighbors, No Coal in Oakland and the Center for Biological Diversity.
“This disgusting coal-export plan will force the children of West Oakland to breathe toxic coal dust known to increase lung and heart diseases,” said Jonathan Evans, environmental health legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “With filthy fossil fuels already choking the world we’re handing to our children, the last thing they need is a daily diet of dirty coal dust just from walking down their neighborhood streets.”