There are two basic reasons why we need a Community Bill of Rights in Bellingham to protect us from the current plans of SSA Marine, Goldman Sachs, BNSF Rail and Peabody Coal. No. 1 reason: In our present system, corporate boards of directors have decision-making powers about projects that override the rights of local citizens. The second reason is that the environmental laws - written by the corporate interests - are basically there to grant permits. In other words, the cards are stacked in favor of harmful projects getting approved....We're proposing the Bellingham Community Bill of Rights so that that the people of Bellingham get to decide what happens here in Bellingham. The initiative is a model for what other communities can do, too.

Stoney Bird and Rick Dubrow, the respective chair and vice chair of the No Coal Political Action Committee, will present "Our Right to Decide! Why We Need the Bellingham Community Bill of Rights to Stop the Coal Trains"....Four decades have been given to the regulatory system to restore environmental quality, but that approach is failing by nearly all measures. A rights-based approach, championed by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), protects 140 municipalities from further impact. Such ordinances ban a threatened impact rather than simply "mitigating" it into an impact with a green veneer. Using this model, the No Coal PAC hopes to stop coal trains from harming Bellingham and the region.

The community of Bellingham, Washington, has launched a campaign that seeks to revoke the supremacy of corporate rights over the local municipality. Its goal is to reassert the rights of nature as a necessity for the continued survival of the human community, and block the construction of a massive coal-export terminal proposed for the region. The initiative is using an innovative model developed by the Community Legal Environmental Defense Fund, a law firm that specializes in this sort of radical experiment in local democracy. This is a huge step forward for community organizing. It directly addresses the systems of oppressive power that are destroying the planet.

Conventional wisdom says no. Their elephant feet will simply stomp you. Armed with lawyers, guns, and money, they will have their way. But maybe it is possible to be fast enough, nimble enough, and most of all, persuasive enough, that the Mumakil will be bewildered and will run off. Maybe CW does not cover all possibilities....Despite diligent efforts by the terminal project planners to bully and fool us into participating in our own destruction, this proposal has galvanized opposition, starting locally in the vicinity of the nearest sizeable town of Bellingham WA, and now spreading along the entire transit route.

The No Coal! Political Action Committee kicked off a new campaign for a “Bill of Rights,” which would ban “activities related to the transportation of coal.” The committee held an event to showcase their new Bill of Rights on Jan. 26. More than 100 people from the community flocked to the Squalicum Boathouse at Zuanich Point Park, leaving latecomers standing....If passed by city officials, the initiative would become an ordinance, said Terry Garrett, a member of No Coal! The group is also collecting signatures in hopes of putting an initiative on the November ballot. The Bill of Rights “removes legal ‘powers’ and ‘rights’ from those Corporations to ensure that the powers and rights of the community are superior to the ‘powers’ and ‘rights’ claimed by those Corporations.”

BELLINGHAM - With a musical kickoff from bandZandt singing "No Coal Trains," local activists launched their "Coal-Free Bellingham" campaign for a citizen initiative to outlaw coal trains through a city ordinance....At Thursday's well-scripted event, they argued that the existing regulatory process typically results in granting a corporation the legal right to harm the environment. "What we are launching today is an initiative campaign through which the people of Bellingham will reassert their right to govern themselves," said organizer Rick Dubrow. "Our aim is to bring a new tool to this work, one that addresses the legal framework that allows those harms to be inflicted on us."

Concerns about energy independence notwithstanding, when the odor of coal dust wafting through the town offends the citizenry’s olfactory glands, the trains must be stopped. At least that’s the way some people in Bellingham, Washington see it. Activists have formed a Political Action Committee (PAC) called No Coal! to halt coal trains from traversing city property. They envision a legal system that would recognize the Rights of Nature, which apparently includes freedom from coal dust.

Coal is anything but king in Bellingham, though it sure is the talk of the town these days. A new citizens group has sprung to life, a political action committee called No Coal!, which is bound and determined to ban coal trains from the largest city in Whatcom County. Here's the deal: There are big plans in the making by SSA Marine to build a huge coal shipping terminal at Cherry Point and ship the product to China. This of course would mean more coal trains passing through the city's Gateway Pacific Terminal, maybe as many as 18 to 20 round-trip trains per day rolling through the center of town. "Here we are shutting down the last coal-fired plant in the state, and now we're going to ship this air polluting stuff oversees!" fumes Rick Dubrow, one of the main organizers of the committee. "That's a little bit insane, don't you think? What we're trying to show is that our community's interests are more important than that of out-of-state corporations."

BELLINGHAM -- Ever since the plans for SSA Marine's coal shipping terminal at Cherry Point became public, city officials have been saying that they would have no direct control over the coal trains that would pass through the city if the Gateway Pacific Terminal is built. A new citizens' group plans to change that, but they seem to face overwhelming legal odds. Rick Dubrow, owner of A1 Builders, is one of the key organizers of a new political action committee called No Coal! On Jan. 26, Dubrow said the group will make public its draft of a proposed new city ordinance that would prohibit any transport of coal through Bellingham by rail or any other means.

BELLINGHAM - Ever since the plans for SSA Marine's coal shipping terminal at Cherry Point became public, city officials have been saying that they would have no direct control over the coal trains that would pass through the city if Gateway Pacific Terminal is built. A new citizens' group plans to change all that, but they seem to face overwhelming legal odds. Rick Dubrow, owner of A1 Builders, is one of the key organizers of a new political action committee called No Coal!On Jan. 26, Dubrow said the group will make public its draft of a proposed new city ordinance that would prohibit any transport of coal through Bellingham by rail or any other means.