May, 10 2016, 10:45am EDT
![Friends of the Earth](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012633/origin.png)
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Kimberly Larson, Power Past Coal, (206) 388-8674
Ricky Junquera, Power Past Coal, (617) 599-7048
Marcie Keever, Friends of the Earth, (510) 900-3144, mkeever@foe.org
Ricky Junquera, Power Past Coal, (617) 599-7048
Marcie Keever, Friends of the Earth, (510) 900-3144, mkeever@foe.org
Army Corps Denies Coal Export Permits and Upholds Lummi Nation Treaty Rights
Pacific Northwest communities celebrate tribe’s leadership in landmark victory
BELLINGHAM, Wash.
After careful review, the US Army Corps of Engineers issued a landmark decision to deny federal permits for SSA Marine's proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal, a coal export facility at Xwe'chi'eXen, also known as Cherry Point, Wash. In January 2015, the Lummi Nation asked the Army Corps to reject the project because of its significant harm to their treaty-protected fisheries and ancestral lands. The historic decision deals a severe blow to SSA Marine's struggling proposal and marks the first time that a coal export facility has been rejected based on its negative impacts to the treaty rights of a tribal nation.
"This is an historic win, and we are grateful to the Lummi Nation for their leadership in delivering a tremendous victory for Northwest families. By denying permits for the largest proposed coal export terminal in North America, the Army Corps is honoring the Lummi Nation's treaty rights and protecting the Salish Sea for all people who call the Pacific Northwest home," said Crina Hoyer, executive director of Bellingham's Re Sources for Sustainable Communities. "The message rings loud and clear: communities will never accept the health, safety, economic or environmental impacts of dirty coal exports."
Since its proposal in 2011, Gateway Pacific has been plagued by delays and financial setbacks, and has faced unprecedented community opposition including more than 124,000 public comments on a scoping process in 2012. Financial backer Goldman Sachs pulled out of the project in 2014; since then, domestic and overseas coal markets have continued their precipitous decline. And this May, leaders from nine tribal nations came together to sign a proclamation urging the Army Corps to respect treaty rights and deny permits for the terminal.
"From this decision to China's groundbreaking cap-and-trade program and recent commitments from world leaders at the UN Climate Negotiations in Paris, the writing on the wall is clear: Coal exports are the wrong direction," said Cesia Kearns, Deputy Director with the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, and Co-Director of the Power Past Coal coalition. "The Lummi Nation's victory brings even more energy to local movements working for justice, and against coal exports and harmful fossil fuels throughout the continent. From British Columbia, to Longview, Washington, to the Gulf of Mexico, we will continue to stand together to say no to corporate special interests and yes to healthy, community-driven futures."
Gateway Pacific would have exported up to 48 million tons of Powder River Basin coal each year, bringing up to 18 additional coal trains every day through Washington, Idaho and Montana, and nearly 1,000 giant coal ships per year through the Salish Sea. Due to the terminal's unprecedented risks to the health, safety, local economies and natural resources of Northwest communities, the Washington State Department of Ecology and Whatcom County planned to consider the project's broad impacts in the environmental impact statement, including coal dust around the terminal, rail traffic and coal dust along rail lines and waterways in Montana, Idaho and Washington; and the effects of burning coal overseas on the Northwest, particularly regarding climate pollution and mercury contamination.
"The peoples of the Pacific Northwest have stopped coal companies dead in their tracks. We've defeated five of six proposals to protect the health and welfare of our families--and families around the world," said Beth Doglio, Campaign Director of Climate Solutions and Co-Director of Power Past Coal. "Now, only the proposed Millennium Bulk Terminals in Longview remains, along with a terminal expansion in British Columbia that would affect rail-line communities in the Northwest. We will continue standing together to defeat these remaining projects and move forward with a cleaner, safer and more sustainable way of life."
Background:
Friends of the Earth U.S. is part of Power Past Coal, an ever-growing alliance of health groups, businesses and environmental, clean-energy, faith and community organizations working to stop coal export off the West Coast. Visit www.powerpastcoal.org for more information.
Since 2010, coal companies have pushed for a total of six coal export terminals for the Pacific Northwest. Four have been defeated, and one is on life support--the Port of Morrow proposal is being appealed by coal export company Lighthouse Resources after receiving state and federal permit denials in 2014. In Washington state, only the Millennium Bulk Terminals proposal remains in Longview, Washington. Combined, Gateway Pacific and Millennium Bulk Terminals would be capable of exporting nearly 100 million metric tons of coal each year. In response, the public has submitted more than 400,000 comments, and nearly 15,000 people have attended public hearings for the facilities.
Opposition is being further fueled by a proliferation of proposals for oil terminals and new oil-by-rail to existing refineries. Together, coal and oil projects place an extreme strain on regional rail systems; rail-line communities could see up to 30 loaded coal and oil trains per day and 212 loaded oil and coal trains every week.
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
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'Utterly Unhinged': Trump-Appointed Judge Dismisses Classified Docs Case
"This is how republics collapse," one lawyer said, noting that even if the decision is reversed, it will likely delay "Trump's trial long enough to prevent any form of accountability before the November election."
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U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, dismissed the criminal classified documents case against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in a Monday decision denounced as politically motivated and "a punch in the mouth to the rule of law."
The Florida-based judge's dismissal came as the Republican National Convention kicked off in Milwaukee, Wisconsin after Trump survived an assassination attempt at a Saturday campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump is expected to formally become the GOP presidential nominee on Thursday.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel for a pair of federal probes after Trump announced the current presidential campaign in November 2022. Trump was finally indicted for his handling of classified documents the following June. He faces 40 charges in this case alone.
"Unless the 11th Circuit and ultimately SCOTUS disagree, Trump goes free for walking out of the White House with top secret documents."
In response to Trump's motion to dismiss, Cannon on Monday agreed with his defense team that "Smith's appointment violates the appointments clause of the United States Constitution" and dismissed the superseding indictment.
Cannon wrote that "both the appointments and appropriations challenges as framed in the motion raise the following threshold question: Is there a statute in the United States Code that authorizes the appointment of Special Counsel Smith to conduct this prosecution? After careful study of this seminal issue, the answer is no."
"None of the statutes cited as legal authority for the appointment... gives the attorney general broad inferior-officer appointing power or bestows upon him the right to appoint a federal officer with the kind of prosecutorial power wielded by Special Counsel Smith," she continued. "Nor do the special counsel's strained statutory arguments, appeals to inconsistent history, or reliance on out-of-circuit authority persuade otherwise."
With an appeal all but certain, Cannon's decision could be reconsidered by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta or the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a conservative supermajority that includes three Trump appointees. Journalists and legal experts on Monday framed the dismissal as just the latest move the judge has made to benefit the man who appointed her.
The Associated Presspointed out that Cannon previously "appointed an independent arbiter to inspect the classified documents recovered during the August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago, a decision that was overturned months later by a unanimous federal appeals panel," and "since then, she has been slow to issue rulings—favoring Trump's strategy of securing delays—and has entertained defense arguments that experts said other judges would have dismissed without hearings."
The New York Timesnoted that "Judge Cannon's ruling came exactly two weeks after Justice Clarence Thomas deeply questioned the constitutionality of Smith's appointment in an odd concurrence in the Supreme Court's landmark ruling granting Trump broad immunity against criminal prosecution," which stemmed from Smith's other case against Trump.
University of Alabama law professor and MSNBC legal commentator Joyce White Vance also highlighted how Cannon's decision—which she roundly criticized and called "absolutely incredible"—came after Thomas' concurrence.
"Unless the 11th Circuit and ultimately SCOTUS disagree, Trump goes free for walking out of the White House with top secret documents. At best, this is seriously delayed," said Vance, adding that she was "disgusted."
Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said that "the dismissal of this case reflects a clear bias for the former president and the outlying opinion of the far-right wing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas."
"To dismiss this case would be a miscarriage of justice," he added. "I urge Attorney General Garland and Special Counsel Smith to appeal this egregious decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals."
As the Times reported: "The ruling rolls back nearly 30 years of how special counsels have gotten their jobs. Special counsels are governed by Justice Department regulations set through the statutory authority of the attorney general."
MSNBC host Chris Hayes accused Cannon of failing to do her job correctly by defying precedent and potentially hoping that the nation's highest court will uphold her decision.
"Just to be crystal clear: SCOTUS has upheld special counsels repeatedly. Cannon is a district court judge, her job is to apply controlling precedent," he explained. "She's doing this because she thinks the MAGA court is on the same page as her and Trump's lawyers and will go along."
Human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid suggested that Cannon's timing was intentional, saying: "She saw the nonstop media coverage of the shooting, used that distraction to overturn decades of legal precedent without citing a single case in her ruling's favor, and dismissed Trump's classified documents case. This is how republics collapse."
"To be sure, Cannon's absurd ruling is so extreme that only one of the MAGA justices supported it in his immunity decision (Thomas). Her decision will likely be reversed because it has absolutely zero basis in precedent whatsoever. It is utterly unhinged," he added. "But Cannon's indefensible opinion still serves its purpose of delaying Trump's trial long enough to prevent any form of accountability before the November election. That was the move all along."
Damon Silvers, a visiting professor at University College London, said that "it's important to understand Judge Cannon's dismissal of the criminal case against Trump as both an attempt to grant him legal immunity AND an effort to escalate tensions in our country for political purposes. The right response is an appeal."
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington president Noah Bookbinder also called for an appeal, saying in a statement that "this is a lawless, outlier decision with no basis in statute or case law. It is deeply dangerous for accountability and checks and balances going forward."
"This decision should and assuredly will be appealed immediately," he added. "It endangers the very concept of ensuring the most powerful people in government have to follow the law."
While fighting this case, Trump in May was convicted of 34 felonies in New York for the falsification of business records regarding hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 presidential election. He faces two other cases—one overseen by Smith and another in Georgia—related to his attempt to overturn his 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden, who is seeking reelection.
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"This kind of leadership is functionally useless to the American people," she added. "Retire."
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