Finding Ways to Address the Hidden Costs of the Coal Economy

Coal Mine in Montana. Photo courtesy of Paul K. Anderson

From the Friends of the San Juans

Thursday, Aug. 2, 5-6:30 pm, San Juan Island Grange, 52 1^st Street N, Friday Harbor

Friday, Aug. 3, 5-6:30 pm, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 242 Main Street, Eastsound

Friends of the San Juans is excited to bring Dr. Claudia Oakes, an environmental consultant and faculty member of Montana State University at Billings, to speak in Friday Harbor and Eastsound about Montana’s political and environmental positions in the coal economy. Her presentation,  From the Montana Mines to the Salish Sea: The Hidden Costs of the Coal Economy, will be given on San Juan and Orcas Islands.

Find out about the source of the coal that could be shipped through the San Juans by one of North America’s largest coal exporters at their proposed terminal outside of Bellingham, near the Cherry Point Aquatic Reserve.  This terminal would export 48 million tons of coal annually, which will require 974 transits of giant bulk carriers through the Salish Sea every year.  San Juan County residents are concerned about a variety of the economic and environmental impacts that this terminal would bring to our region.

“The 21^st Century has ushered in a new era of unsustainable coal extraction and exploitation in Montana – with a projected four-fold increase in coal shipments from Montana to Washington State, and then to Asia.  This new trading nexus will dwarf any of the previous century, and entangle Montana and the Pacific Northwest in a Saudi Arabian-style web of political and economic dependencies and environmental consequences that will result in long-term environmental damage and conflict,” says Dr. Oakes.

Dr. Oakes’ presentations in August will focus on the available and untapped coal resources in Montana and how the State of Montana and the coal industry are collaborating to sell the Montana coal export economy in Washington and Asia.  The other “hidden costs” of exporting coal will be covered, such as the socio-economic and environmental impacts from the projected increase in coal trains traversing the Rocky Mountains and Cascades, as well as the global implications of unregulated greenhouse gas emissions from the ultimate burning of coal to fuel Asian industrial expansion.   There will also be a discussion about how those of us in the San Juans can join forces with concerned citizens and organizations in Montana to force decision makers to address the hidden costs of coal.

Dr. Oakes is an environmental planner and educator with more than 30 years of professional experience. Dr. Oakes currently manages an independent environmental consulting practice in Billings, Montana. Claudia is also a part-time Adjunct Faculty member in the Department of Sociology, Political Science, Native American Studies, and Environmental Studies at Montana State University, Billings, where she teaches upper division courses in environmental policy and impact analysis, and current issues in energy and the environment in Montana.  Claudia has spent a lifetime balancing the goals of expanding her own education in the field of ecology and conservation, making a contribution to the biological education of young people, raising her own children to become strong and environmentally-motivated human beings and meeting the economic demands of making a living.