West Oakland Takes on King Coal

Initially revealed on EdenKeeper

The historic neighborhood of West Oakland, California is no doubt one of many San Francisco Bay Area’s remaining bastions of true grit. Native residents have battled unemployment, poverty, and crime. It was proper right here almost 50 years up to now that Huey Newton and Bobby Seale drafted the Black Panther Ten Stage Program to declare the rights of the African-American neighborhood. Now native congregations have come collectively to battle for the effectively being and safety of their neighborhood by standing as a lot as King Coal and the barons of the fossil gasoline enterprise.

Although the battle is native, the implications are worldwide. If native congregations and their allies fail, the Oakland port shall be used to maneuver American coal to Asia and previous. Coal corporations will proceed destroying the land, water, and air to mine their product, communities will proceed relying on dirty energy, carbon emissions will proceed to increase, and native climate change will proceed to worsen.

The world needs West Oakland’s grit. Are they up for the obligation?

Growing and Re-Growing West Oakland

Some of the challenges modern-West Oakland faces will likely be traced once more to the event of the Oakland Navy Base. When it opened in 1941, the underside served as a hub of manufacturing, enterprise, and — most importantly — employment. Nonetheless when the underside closed after the Chilly Battle, these jobs disappeared. In West Oakland, unemployment and crime rose whereas property values dropped and firms left.

In 2012, Oakland entered into an settlement with California Capital and Funding Group (CCIG) to redevelop the underside. The redevelopment ensures to attract corporations for the time being unfold all by means of the East Bay, bringing 1000’s of jobs to Oakland and reducing truck guests on shut by freeways. The enterprise moreover consists of street and rail enhancements for the port, improvement of a deep water terminal, and relocation of two major recyclers from West Oakland neighborhoods to the underside.

Coal Sparks Heated Opposition in Oakland

Although Phil Tagami, an Oakland resident and the CEO of CCIG, explicitly mentioned in a December 2013 e-newsletter that his agency “has no curiosity or involvement inside the pursuit of coal-related operations on the previous Oakland Navy Base,” good investigatory reporting by the Richfield Reaper, a neighborhood Utah newspaper, and Darwin Bond Graham of the East Bay Particular revealed plans to utilize Oakland as a transport hub for Utah coal. This was data to Oakland metropolis officers. They declare CCIG under no circumstances educated them coal could possibly be part of the product mix and the approval course of would have been lots fully completely different had CCIG acknowledged coal as a product.

As anticipated, the chance of coal in Oakland drew quick opposition from well-known environmental groups. Nonetheless native clergy leaders had been moreover quick to voice their opposition.

At an Oakland Metropolis Council listening to on October twentieth, faith leaders delivered a letter, which raised points about effectively being and safety impacts of coal domestically. “As a resident of West Oakland, a person with respiratory challenges and a faith chief, I am profoundly concerned regarding the effectively being and environmental impacts of transporting coal by means of our metropolis,” said Archdeacon of the diocese of California, Carolyn Bolton. “I strongly oppose the occasion of a coal terminal in our already weak and intensely impacted neighborhood.”

Is Coal Good for Oakland?

As opposition has grown in Oakland, rumors and misinformation about some great benefits of transporting coal by means of the neighborhood have moreover unfold. Some say the whole redevelopment enterprise shall be killed if the developer doesn’t have coal money to assemble. Nonetheless the “No Coal in Oakland” advertising marketing campaign often called the rumor “sheer folly” in a letter to the Oakland Metropolis Council. “The false portrayal of coal exports as Oakland’s pathway to appreciable jobs is a fairy story that the developer would not have dared present a few years up to now,” they wrote.

The truth is trains filled with coal will ship additional points to the neighborhood than benefits. If the cars containing coal aren’t lined, coal mud would possibly contaminate native air, soil, and water. In the event that they’re, the saved coal would possibly spontaneously combust and catch hearth. In a neighborhood that is already overburdened by air air air pollution, the illusory promise of additional jobs doesn’t make long-term sense.

West Oakland Rises Up

The Oakland Metropolis Council is for the time being investigating coal’s impacts on effectively being. Religious and environmental groups see this as a possibility to show and work together additional of us in Oakland.

“Coal is taking the neighborhood backwards,” Rev. Ken Chambers of West Aspect Missionary Baptist Church suggested EdenKeeper. “It’s not going to create jobs; it’s an automated system that’s taking place a apply rail.” The reverend is web internet hosting conferences at his church to show the neighborhood he’s often called home for a few years. He hopes to develop a strong grassroots effort to hold politicians accountable.

St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, which has an prolonged historic previous of environmental engagement, will also be mobilizing its congregants. “Metropolis, poor, and minority communities have been the dumping ground for environmental waste merchandise for a really very long time and consequently there’s an prolonged historic previous of respiratory illnesses in these communities,” said Rev. Kwasi Thornell of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

What Will Oakland Do?

California isn’t often ground-zero inside the battle in opposition to coal. The state, and the Bay Area significantly, are often native climate movement leaders. These days, the California Legislature adopted SB185, which divested the state’s largest public pension packages from coal investments. In a present journey to the Vatican, Governor Brown voiced his help for Pope Francis’s environmental encyclical and declared that till we depart 90% of our coal inside the ground, we’re going to face native climate disaster.

No matter California’s progressive native climate insurance coverage insurance policies and guidelines, West Oakland is its private neighborhood. It’s their effectively being, safety, and jobs on the street. Native clergy can educate their congregations regarding the fully completely different selections and data them in direction of the moral different, nonetheless it’s as a lot as residents to indicate their grit and battle for his or her neighborhood.

In response to Rev. Will Scott of California Interfaith Power & Gentle, a faith group dedicated to native climate movement, there shall be one different meeting at West Aspect Missionary Baptist Church on November sixteenth at 6:30pm for folk concerned in taking movement. If you’re a West Oakland native or just any person concerned in stopping coal, attend the meeting and current your help. Who’s conscious of when the battle would possibly come to your neighborhood.

“There are various communities that must have this dialog,” said Scott. “We’ve to extend our moral voices.”

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