You have probably heard that coal mining interests want to use the abandoned railway between Willits and Humboldt Bay to ship coal from Wyoming, Utah and Montana to Asia. [https://www.times-standard.com/2021/09/07/north-coast-lawmakers-rally-against-plan-to-ship-coal-out-of-humboldt-bay-via-rail/]
350.Humboldt joins with other Humboldt County environmental organizations in opposing this move. Please read the version of the common message below that originated with Humboldt Baykeepers, as it includes how to write a personal letter to the Surface Transportation Board. The letter needs to be sent today!
Thank you.
350 Humboldt Steering Committee
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The Threat
Coal interests are moving to seize the North Coast Railroad Authority’s rail line in a scheme to ship coal to Asia out of Humboldt Bay. Such an operation would present profound threats to public health and to North Coast ecosystems, especially Humboldt Bay and the Eel River. Nor can the Earth’s atmosphere absorb the carbon from burning that coal without further catastrophic impacts, from the drought and wildfires we see around us to the sea level rise that will soon drown what remains of the rail line.
Please join us in demanding our local, state, and national representatives use every possible means to stop the coal train. We need your support on two actions:
First, tell the Surface Transportation Board to proceed with railbanking.
Second, tell the Humboldt Bay Harbor District to protect Humboldt Bay by passing an ordinance to prohibit or impede coal export facilities within their jurisdiction.
Make Individual Comments to the Surface Transportation Board:
We need your help to convince the federal Surface Transportation Board to complete the North Coast Railroad Authority’s railbanking process. With this process complete we can protect our region from the threat of coal trains running along the Eel River canyon, and move forward with developing the Great Redwood Trail.
If you would like to make individualized comments to the Surface Transportation Board by September 14, please follow the below instructions and suggested talking points:
- Click here to file your comment with the STB
- Click on environmental comments
- Click on yes for whether you know your docket, then put in AB 1305 X.
- Fill out the fields and attach (pdf or word) the letter. The name of the file cannot have any spaces in it, just underscores or hyphens, i.e. NCRA_Railbanking_Support_Letter or something like that.
NOTE: We had trouble submitting the 350 Humboldt letter. Everything seemed to work, but the “Submit” button didn’t. If this happens to you send your comments in an email to the person who helped us: [email protected] If you are interested in what we wrote it is pasted at the bottom of this email.
- Please set a timeline to complete the railbanking process.
- It is not necessary to pause the larger railbanking process to confirm the legal status of two terminal segments of the farthest reaches of the rail line.
- There is enormous public support for railbanking and the proposed Great Redwood Trail. But neither the North Coast public nor the Eel River Canyon’s geology will support the unprecedented levels of freight rail traffic that would be required to finance reconstruction and maintenance of a railroad from Willits to Humboldt Bay.
Threat of Coal Trains on the North Coast
A shadowy shell corporation is threatening our future with an apparent proposal to purchase the Northwestern Pacific rail line, kill the dream of the Great Redwood Trail, and ultimately export coal from the Midwest out of Humboldt Bay. Tune in to hear your friends from Friends of the Eel River, Humboldt Baykeeper, and EPIC discuss the details of how such an absurd proposal is even possible, and why we must take this threat seriously and fight it with everything we’ve got! Tune in tomorrow morning for this edition of the EcoNews Report
You can listen to the EcoNews Report every Saturday at 10 AM on KHUM, on Lost Coast Outpost, or subscribe to the podcast here.
350 Humboldt comments to Surface Transportation Board
TO: Surface Transportation Board
From: 350 Humboldt: Grassroots Climate Action
Regarding: AB 1305 X Railbanking
As a climate action group, we have been strongly supportive of bike and walking trails and other transportation that is very low in greenhouse gas emissions. The conversion of the abandoned rail line between Willits and Arcata is a wonderful example of how actions that mitigate climate change can have positive benefits for communities. This conversion also has extremely broad support in Humboldt County and in the whole North Coast. The communities along the rail line have been very clear in not wanting reconstruction of a railroad. The geology of the Eel River canyon is also unsuited to a railroad.
If a railroad were to be used to transport coal, North Coast communities would oppose it. Since Eureka is a charter city, it could prohibit it. The City of Eureka and the City of Arcata have both shown their commitment to making the changes needed to prevent the worst of climate change by responding to 350 Humboldt’s appeal and committing to use 100% clean and renewable energy by 2025.
This conversion into a trail is dependent on the Surface Transportation Board completing the railbanking process. We urge you to do this as quickly as possible. We also feel it is unnecessary to pause railbanking to confirm the legal status of the ends of the rail line.
Thank you for your consideration of our views.
Sincerely,
Daniel Chandler, Ph.D.
For the Steering Committee