Keep coal at home
It makes no sense to export coal to Asia [“Coal hearing packed, mostly by opponents,” page one, Dec. 14].
The environmental impact goes far beyond the coal dust that will blow off the railcars. Consider the thousands of gallons an hour of poorly refined diesel cargo ships burn and the fact that the coal will be burned in unregulated and outdated power plants.

Keeping our coal at home and burning it in a modern power plant will have far less environmental impact, create a greater number of jobs and help reduce our dependence on foreign energy.

—George DeMore, Hoquiam

Take responsibility for climate change
Jay Timmons and Herb Krohn’s op-ed “Why we need a coal terminal” [Opinion, Dec. 13] present a shortsighted and prejudicial perspective on what the true issue really is: When do we take responsibility for climate change? The scientific evidence is overwhelming, as shown by natural phenomena that point to man's contribution to the problem.

The shallowness of the op-ed totally ignores the fact we must now address how we as a nation and citizen of the world can help reduce this growing and inevitable problem.

Coal is one of the worst offenders of pollution and global warming. Shipping our coal to China simply sends the problems elsewhere. Despite misleading advertisements by the coal industry, coal is not clean and cannot be clean.

While a shipping facility may create jobs for the short term, the future result is much more calamitous. .

—Thomas Westman, Seattle