On the heels of shutting down the Port of Vancouver to protest the illegal approval of a massive oil terminal, today Portland Rising Tide disrupted a Millennium Bulk Terminals presentation and luncheon with Portland’s Maritime Commerce Club.
According to Portland Rising Tide’s Facebook page: “About 40 of us just interrupted Millennium Bulk Terminals coal export presentation multiple times. Their VP got served a platter of coal and one of our friends had an allergic reaction to all the BS in the room, which created quite the commotion. Should be pretty clear that nobody wants their disastrous project or any fossil fuel terminal in this region.”
Millennium Bulk is proposing a coal export terminal for the Port of Longview. Owned by Ambre Energy and Arch Coal Inc., which are extracting coal from the Powder River Basin, wants to export up to 44 million metric tons of coal to Asia. According to Portland Rising Tide, “The companies’ coal and oil handling proposals are currently under scoping process and includes local ports; the Port of Morrow, Port of St. Helens and the Longview terminal.”
The terminal proposed in Longview would be the largest export terminal in North America, and is fostered with lies and deceit from its parent companies. In 2011, a legal challenge revealed that Millennium Bulk had lied to the county about the size of the project, claiming it would only ship 5 million tons of coal per year.
Today’s action keeps up the pressure against the unprecedented quantities of fossil fuel terminals proposed for the Pacific Northwest. Just over a week ago, Portland Rising Tide and friends held a picket line, clogging entry traffic to the Port of Vancouver and effectively shutting down the port for hours. The action was directed in solidarity with the ILWU local #4 which was locked out of negotiations with union-busting United Grain.
Earlier this year, on July 27, more than 1,000 activists with Portland Rising Tide blockaded the Columbia River in a symbolic protest against fossil fuel shipments.
