Clean Oakland
  • Home
  • Sanjiv Handa
  • Gene's Blog
  • Rotunda RFP
    • Lawsuit against Rotunda Partners II >
      • Facts you should know about the Rotunda Building
      • Facts you should know about the Rotunda Garage
      • Charges in massive investment fraud case
      • Phil Tagami's Obligation
  • Gene Hazzard -Keeping eyes open
    • Hazzard substitution of attorney
    • Public Record Request [PORT] about the $100,000.00 deposit, NO Straight answer.
    • Court Reporter Transcript
    • The Power Broker? >
      • Robert Moses >
        • NY Times February 14, 2007
  • Chronology of Tagami's scheme of Private-Public Partnership with City Projects
  • Another Tagami scheme - Rotunda Building deal
    • Eight Years Later, Tagami Still Hasn’t Started Rotunda Project City Fails to Hold Developer Responsible
    • 1630 San Pablo - Parcel 2
    • Rotunda Building Loan
    • Post -Tagami Failed to Make Payments on Rotunda Development Loan
    • City Urges No Action in Tagami’s Failure to Make Payments on $12 Million Loan
  • Oakland Army Base
    • Port to Give Tagami $600 Million Exclusive
    • OAB - Wikipedia
    • OAB - Military Museum
    • Army Base Gateway Redevelopment Project
    • BAAQMD Comments on Air Monitoring Work Plan
    • Cost Sharing Agreement
    • OAB Rezoning and LDDA update
  • Billboards in Oakland
  • Port of Oakland
  • Oakland Raiders?
  • Who is running Oakland?
    • Jerry Brown
    • Don Perata
    • Judge Robert B. Freedman
    • Jacques Barzaghi
    • Gawfco Enterprises
    • Deception
    • Doug Bloch
    • Phil Tagami >
      • SF Business Times November 20, 2005
      • Rotunda wrestling
      • A conversation with Oakland developer Phil Tagami
      • Audit of $91 million Fox Theater project
      • Tagami Conflict
      • CCIG Response to Oakland Works
      • Oakland developer Phil Tagami named to state medical board
      • ‘Shotgun Phil’ hits another bullseye — with governor’s help
  • CleanOakland Store
  • CenterPoint Properties

Governor’s friend sues to lift coal-shipping ban in Oakland

12/8/2016

0 Comments

 

GOVERNOR’S FRIEND SUES TO LIFT COAL-SHIPPING BAN IN OAKLAND

By Bob Egelko
​
Updated 5:30 pm, Thursday, December 8, 2016
The would-be shipper of coal from the Port of Oakland, a company controlled by a longtime friend of Gov. Jerry Brown, has sued Oakland for outlawing coal handling and storage within its borders, saying the ban interferes with interstate commerce and with federal authority over the transportation of hazardous substances.

The City Council unanimously passed the ordinance in July with the support of environmental groups, who said coal trains emit hazardous dust particles, and burning coal releases carbon dioxide that worsens global warming. In August, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, prohibiting the state Transportation Commission from funding future coal-handling ports, though it would not affect Oakland.

The suit was filed in federal court Wednesday by a company called Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, which had signed a contract with the city in 2013 to build a $250 million shipping terminal as part of a 130-acre development at the site of the former Oakland Army Base. The coal would be shipped by rail from Utah and could amount to 10 million tons a year, more than three times as much coal as California ports now send overseas.

“Restricting any commodity on political grounds puts a cloud of uncertainty over the entire project,” said Phil Tagami, chief executive of California Capital and Investment Group, which controls the shipping company. “What will be the next commodity to which the council objects?”

Tagami has been a friend of Brown’s for 20 years and owns the seven-story building near Oakland City Hall where Brown and his wife, Anne Gust Brown, were married in 2005. As mayor of Oakland, Brown appointed Tagami to the Oakland Port Commission in 2000, and as governor he has named Tagami to the California Lottery Commission and the state medical board.

Brown has also been a leader in California’s efforts to combat global warming by reducing carbon pollution. In signing the ban on state funding of future coal ports, he praised Oakland’s action and said the state’s goal should be to “eliminate the shipment of coal” through its ports.

The lawsuit contends opponents’ fears of coal-dust pollution are exaggerated.

The ports of Long Beach, which exports coal, and Pittsburg, which ships the coal product petcoke, have kept emissions in check by using insulated coverings on their shipping terminals, lawyers for Tagami’s company said. They said pollution-control technology would keep emissions from the Oakland port “negligible.”

By prohibiting the local export of coal, one of the most commonly transported commodities in the United States, Oakland is imposing unconstitutional “burdens on interstate commerce,” the lawyers argued. They also said the ban violates exclusive federal authority over rail transportation and the designation of hazardous substances.

The Sierra Club, which backed the Oakland ordinance, denounced the lawsuit.

“Private developer Phil Tagami wants to overturn the will of the people so that he can make a profit on coal, which poses a health, safety and climate risk to Oakland,” said Jessica Yarnall Loarie, a lawyer for the environmental group. “We plan to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the city to make sure that this terminal never ships coal.”

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf declined to comment on the lawsuit. But in a May 2015 letter to Tagami, quoted in the suit, Schaaf told the developer he should “respect the owner and public’s decree that we will not have coal shipped through our city.”

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Governor-s-friend-sues-to-lift-coal-shipping-10784276.php​


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Gene Hazzard

    Don't Be Envious of Evil Men
    1Do not be envious of evil men, Nor desire to be with them; 2For their minds devise violence, And their lips talk of trouble.…

    Archives

    February 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    AMB
    Army Base
    City Of Oakland
    Coal
    Dan Siegel
    Garage
    Gene Hazzard
    Grant
    Hamid Moghadam
    Kaplan
    Oakland
    Phil Tagami
    Prologis
    Public Ethics Commission
    Rebecca Kaplan
    Redevelopment Agency
    Rotunda
    Tiger
    Wharf
    WOSP
    Zhao Liang

    RSS Feed

  • Home
  • Sanjiv Handa
  • Gene's Blog
  • Rotunda RFP
    • Lawsuit against Rotunda Partners II >
      • Facts you should know about the Rotunda Building
      • Facts you should know about the Rotunda Garage
      • Charges in massive investment fraud case
      • Phil Tagami's Obligation
  • Gene Hazzard -Keeping eyes open
    • Hazzard substitution of attorney
    • Public Record Request [PORT] about the $100,000.00 deposit, NO Straight answer.
    • Court Reporter Transcript
    • The Power Broker? >
      • Robert Moses >
        • NY Times February 14, 2007
  • Chronology of Tagami's scheme of Private-Public Partnership with City Projects
  • Another Tagami scheme - Rotunda Building deal
    • Eight Years Later, Tagami Still Hasn’t Started Rotunda Project City Fails to Hold Developer Responsible
    • 1630 San Pablo - Parcel 2
    • Rotunda Building Loan
    • Post -Tagami Failed to Make Payments on Rotunda Development Loan
    • City Urges No Action in Tagami’s Failure to Make Payments on $12 Million Loan
  • Oakland Army Base
    • Port to Give Tagami $600 Million Exclusive
    • OAB - Wikipedia
    • OAB - Military Museum
    • Army Base Gateway Redevelopment Project
    • BAAQMD Comments on Air Monitoring Work Plan
    • Cost Sharing Agreement
    • OAB Rezoning and LDDA update
  • Billboards in Oakland
  • Port of Oakland
  • Oakland Raiders?
  • Who is running Oakland?
    • Jerry Brown
    • Don Perata
    • Judge Robert B. Freedman
    • Jacques Barzaghi
    • Gawfco Enterprises
    • Deception
    • Doug Bloch
    • Phil Tagami >
      • SF Business Times November 20, 2005
      • Rotunda wrestling
      • A conversation with Oakland developer Phil Tagami
      • Audit of $91 million Fox Theater project
      • Tagami Conflict
      • CCIG Response to Oakland Works
      • Oakland developer Phil Tagami named to state medical board
      • ‘Shotgun Phil’ hits another bullseye — with governor’s help
  • CleanOakland Store
  • CenterPoint Properties