by Eric de Place via Sightline Daily
There are at present six proposals to export coal from Northwest ports. If all of these proposals are built, and if all of them operate at full capacity, the Northwest would be shipping 145 million tons of per coal year.
When burned, that coal will produce roughly 262 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. It’s such a staggering figure, that it’s a little hard to grasp. So here’s some context:
The coal export proposals are, in other words, a disaster for the climate. In aggregate, they are actually far worse than the Keystone XL pipeline.
If you want to dig into the numbers on a project by project basis, here they area:
- Cherry Point, Washington. SSA Marine is planning to build and operate the Gateway Pacific Terminal, a new shipping facility north of Bellingham that would be capable of handling 48 million tons of coal per year. Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private sector coal company, has already agreed to supply 24 million tons of coal.
- Longview, Washington. Millennium Bulk Terminals, a subsidiary of the Australian coal mining company Ambre Energy, purchased a port site on the Columbia River. Arch Coal, a major American coal mining company, has a 38 percent stake in the site. Ambre hopes to export 44 million tons of coal, with 25 million tons in the first phase.
- Grays Harbor, Washington. According to newspaper accounts, RailAmerica is planning to develop a coal export terminal at the Port of Grays Harbor’s Marine Terminal 3 that could handle 5 million tons of coal each year.
- Port of St. Helens, Oregon. Kinder Morgan is planning to build and operate a coal export terminal at the Port Westward Industrial Park near Clatskanie that will be capable of handling30 million tons of coal per year, with 15 million tons in an initial phase of development.
- Port of Morrow, Oregon. Ambre Energy is planning to construct a facility on the Columbia River in eastern Oregon that will transfer coal from rail to barges that will be towed downriver to Port Westward where the coal will be loaded on ongoing vessels. The company says that the system will be capable of handling 8 million tons per year.
- Coos Bay, Oregon. The Port of Coos Bay is considering a mysterious proposal, known to the public only as “Project Mainstay,” that officials say could export 6 to 10 million tons of coal per year.
Notes: My calculations assume that Powder River Basin coal generates 8,500 BTUs per pound, and that 1 million BTUs produces 212.7 pounds of CO2. Gasoline consumption refers to “motor gasoline” and comes the US Federal Highway Administration’s statistics and assumes 19.6 pounds of carbon dioxide per gallon of gasoline.
– by Eric de Place. This post is part of the research project, Northwest Coal Exports, and is reprinted with permission. An earlier version can be seen here, Coal Exports and Carbon Consequences.
Related Posts:
- Coal Exports Are Bigger Threat Than Tar Sands Pipeline
- Why Coal Leasing Should Be The Center Of The Climate Fight
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Not clear that there is track capacity for more than a fraction of that. Nonetheless don’t want any of it.
Hello Joe. I don’t understand if you are the real author of this post, but there is something very confusing in the bottom note:
… assumes 19.6 pounds of carbon dioxide per gallon of gasoline.
From france it is very hard to understand that 1 gallon of gasoline gives 19,6 pounds of CO2. We use the metric system where 1 litre of ware weighs 1 kg.
In our taca association, we explain that 1 litre of oil gives 1 kg of CARBON (forget the O2 that needs to multiply by 3,67).
The simple rule is that the carbon we burn is exactly the carbon we pump in the atmosphere.
We are alone to herald this obvious rule: 1 litre of oil is 1 carbon kilo (there is in average 700g of carbon inside the litre, but you can add 100g to account for the energy to extract, refine and deliver the oil, and then a bit more 200g to account the energy to build and maintain the car burning the oil).
This is a rule of thumb, but it is correct, efficient and absolutely needed to involve every one to understand his own carbon impact.
I would really appreciate to write something about this important subject.
Not my post. Just a mistake I fixed.
One gallon = 20 pounds of CO2. Don’t confuse C with CO2.
The US exported 107 million tons of coal in 2011 mostly thru East coast ports.
The top destination was Europe 54 million tons (Mt), twice the volume of Asia at 27 million tons.
We shipped more coal to The Netherlands (11 Mt), S. Korea (10 Mt), Brazil 9 Mt), Japan (7 Mt), UK (6 Mt), Italy (6Mt) and Latvia (5.6 Mt) than to China (5.6 Mt). But, shipments to Canada (7 Mt) were probably reshipped to Asia.
While we have to stop new West Coast port expansion, there must be something that can be done to slow coal shipments from the East Coast and Gulf, especially to “green” countries.
http://205.254.135.7/coal/production/quarterly/pdf/t7p01p1.pdf