Trump wants to put a $75m coal terminal in this liberal California city. Residents aren’t having it
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- Donald Trump announced on 4 June he was using wartime powers to direct $700m to coal projects nationwide, including $75m for a coal export terminal at the Port of Oakland that he wants breaking ground this summer.
- No Coal in Oakland and the Keep Coal Out of the East Bay coalitions have accelerated a decade-long fight, scheduling a Berkeley community meeting on 25 June and planning to distribute hundreds of yard signs to deter private investors.
- California Assembly member Mia Bonta introduced legislation requiring a full environmental impact report before local agencies approve any facility that handles, stores, or exports coal.
- Phil Tagami, the developer who signed a 2015 contract to build a shipping terminal on the former Oakland army base, pivoted to coal when Utah approached him that year, and won a September California Supreme Court ruling striking down Oakland's 2016 coal ban.
- Organizers estimate the terminal will cost close to $400m to build, meaning the $75m federal contribution covers less than a quarter — making the fight over private financing potentially more decisive than the federal dollars.
- Oakland mayor Barbara Lee, a former congresswoman, signed a campaign pledge not to accept coal-industry money and said she 'strongly support[s] Oakland's ban on coal,' though she has not yet released a statement on Trump's announcement.
- An EPA assessment cited in the coverage identifies West Oakland as a community burdened by pollution from highways, the port, and logistics infrastructure, with a history of redlining compounding high childhood asthma rates and toxic-waste exposure.
Why it matters: The $75m federal contribution covers less than a quarter of the terminal's estimated $400m build cost, so organizers are betting that visible community opposition — yard signs, regulatory fights, and investor pressure — can kill the project even after Trump funnels in taxpayer money. West Oakland residents, already facing documented childhood asthma rates and pollution from surrounding industry, would absorb the health costs of a terminal whose coal is destined for overseas markets.
