Tagged: Coal

This week we’re bringing you our special EarthFix series, "Voices of Coal."

Each day we'll hear from someone with a personal stake in the Northwest's debate over coal export terminals.

Today we visit with a rancher who runs cows near the epicenter of open pit mining in America - the Powder River Basin near Gillette, Wyoming.

 The Secretary of Interior has formed a task force to determine if coal companies are underpaying royalties for coal mined on public land and sold in Asia. And it has confirmed it is investigating one coal company for potential criminal wrongdoing.

The public is getting thirty more days to comment on a proposal to move coal through the Northwest.

The new public comment period begins December first for the Morrow Pacific coal project. It would transport coal by train to Boardman, Ore. From there, the coal would be loaded onto barges and shipped down the Columbia River.

Oregon Democratic Congressman Peter DeFazio tried to add an amendment requiring a study of the impacts of transporting coal by rail to the coal bill which passed the U.S. House of Representatives Friday. The Republican majority blocked the amendment.