I have concerns lest the State of Washington cave in to coal exporters, thereby putting millions of people at risk of asthma and other lung-diseases.




The State of Washington is (rightly) promoting Carbon Pollution Standards: The first year we will avoid up to 100,000 asthma attacks and 2,100 heart attacks, the state says, so tell me this: Why are we planning to become one of the nation's largest exporters of coal? Will that also make us the largest exporter of lung disease and lung-deaths?

My concern is that the construction of huge, coal-exporting facilities in Whatcom County and elsewhere might expose millions of people, especially the Chinese, to the ill-effects from coal burning electrical facilities. It is my understanding that electrical facilities will be the recipients of much of the coal we export in the future. The industry and market potential is huge, enough that the $660 million for the facility at Cherry Point near Bellingham, WA, alone seems insufficient to deter investors, although I read recently that Goldman Sachs had pulled their support.

Shipping coal to China may boost industry in China: Will that also boost increase lung disease?   Will millions more Chinese start having asthma and other lung diseases, just as has happened in Washington State in recent years? I hope not, but enormous profits are a temptation for both American and foreign investors.


Will American, with it's huge coal reserves, be a  Savior to the Chinese, or and exporter of death and disease?

For more information, please my sister article at http://lockwoodsaid.blogspot.com/2014/06/washington-wheezer-state-should.html.

By the way, did you know that Frank Ellsworth Lockwood is also the author of the book "Captains All"? You can purchase it at https://www.createspace.com/4133264