Endorsement Request: No Coal in Oakland

[Ben Keller]

Hello everyone,

I’d like to (belatedly) request that CCL Alameda sign onto this open letter in support of the No Coal In Oakland campaign. As many of you know, a number of us have been battling this proposed coal export terminal for over a decade. Now that the City of Oakland has exhausted its legal remedies, our next opportunities to throw sand in the gears of this project are to 1) make the required permitting processes from local regulatory agencies such as BAAD as rigorous as possible, and 2) demonstrate mass community opposition to the project to discourage potential investors. This open letter serves both of these goals. The Trump administration’s recently-announced scheme to pour $75 million in federal taxpayer dollars into the project, while infuriating, does not change this basic calculus, as it is a small fraction of the money that would be needed to actually get the project off the ground.

The text of the letter is linked in the original request to our chapter, which I have copied below. Our chapter has previously endorsed the No Coal In Oakland campaign on several occasions; I ask that we re-affirm our support for this key climate and environmental justice priority now. I believe this request is consistent with our chapter’s criteria for endorsement; in particular, this is a good opportunity to stand with our community partners and allies.

Let me know if you have any questions and/or if you support this request.

Thanks,

Ben

Citizens' Climate Lobby has been a valuable partner in the campaign to keep coal out of Oakland.  We are in a new phase of this effort, and we hope you can step up once again to protect East Bay residents by signing this letter to the Bay Area Air District.

Developers are moving ahead with an initial permit request and attempting to raise funds necessary to realize their project, but we are still working to prevent the use of the proposed waterfront marine terminal to export coal to Asia. 

We want to make sure that if developers realize their ambition, every possible measure is taken so that coal trains don’t put everyone along the rail lines at risk, and the terminal itself doesn’t add to the pollution burden and health impacts of West Oakland residents and worker

These dangers can be minimized by mitigating regulation, including requiring the use of  technology that Judge Chhabria – the US District Court Judge who ruled against the City of Oakland in 2018 – anticipated the developers would implement.  The Bay Area Air District (BAAD, formerly BAAQMD) can require some, and perhaps all, of these safety measures as conditions on construction and operation of the facility.  

We have written an Open Letter to BAAD which suggests a set of mitigations we believe the Air District can and should require.  We plan to submit it to them with the names of supporting organizations and individuals. 

Two years ago, Citizens' Climate Lobbby was one of more than 90 organizations and a thousand individuals to sign our Open Letter to Jon Brooks, the hedge fund owner who is now owner of the sub-lease on the West Gateway. We would like to replicate this process with our letter to BAAD. 

We hope Citizens' Climate Lobby can sign the BAAD letter, which you can read here:https://nocoal.org/BAADLetter/

[Thomas E McKone]

I strongly support this

Tom McKone

Sent from iPhone, please excuse typos

On Jun 11, 2026, at 8:08 PM, Ben Keller <benk...@sonic.net> wrote:

Hello everyone,

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[Elyce Klein]

I strongly support this. Thanks Ben.

Elyce 

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[Susan Wright]

I do too, and I hope this can at least stall if not stop the coal shipments

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[Nick Despota]

I strongly support this.

Thanks for bringing this forward, Ben.

Nick Despota 

On Jun 12, 2026, at 8:45 AM, Susan Wright <wrong...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Trish Clifford]

Ben, thanks for bringing this to our attention. I am also very much in favor of it. These coal trains would be coming through Richmond before getting to Oakland so this project would have wide-ranging, negative effects on air quality. I also think having CCL listed as a supporter will be something tangible we can show to Lateefah Simon regarding us supporting her EJ goals.

FYI all, KQED Forum had a recent show on this topic.

Trish

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[Josh Gutwill]

I support this as well.

Josh

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[Ted Obbard]

Hearing no concerns and much support, and having checked with Ben about opposing groups (none other than “a MAGA-aligned gadfly and those who have a direct financial stake in the project (or those who have been paid by them).”), Josh & I as group leaders hereby approve this.

I will make it happen.

Thanks, all!

Ted

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“We are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we are the last generation that can do something about it.” Jay Inslee

Citizens’ Climate Lobby 
Political Will for a Livable World

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