“For too long, limited West Coast export capacity has constrained America’s ability to move coal and other energy resources to global markets,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement.

“By investing in both coal generation and critical export infrastructure, including the West Gateway Terminal Project, the Energy Department is strengthening U.S. energy security, reinforcing strategic supply chains, and advancing American energy dominance,” Wright continued. 

The West Gate Terminal would be constructed on a former Oakland Army Base site and would be expected to operate daily, with the capacity to export up to 12 million tons of coal annually to Asian markets. The administration expects to break ground on the project this summer, with operations expected by summer 2028.

However, environmental groups have threatened to fight back against the administration’s efforts. 

“The administration’s move to funnel $75 million of taxpayer dollars into a polluting coal facility right on the Bay’s shoreline poses a direct threat to Oakland residents and San Francisco Bay,” Ben Eichenberg, an attorney at San Francisco Baykeeper, said in a statement.

“The developers should expect an unrelenting uphill battle,” he added. “San Francisco Baykeeper and our frontline community partners will continue to use every legal, regulatory, and advocacy tool to protect the Bay and Bay Area residents from this project.”

The export terminal would be key to Wyoming’s coal industry, Gov. Mark Gordon (R-WY) told the Washington Examiner last week following the president’s announcement. 

Gordon said that countries in Asia have been interested in obtaining Wyoming’s coal. He took a trip to Japan and Taiwan in May, where coal exports were a topic of discussion. 

He said that if local authorities or the state of California decide to oppose the coal export terminal, the state will sue. Gordon noted that the state sued Washington state regarding a blocked coal export terminal, but the Supreme Court declined to hear the lawsuit in 2021. 

“We sued once, we sued before,” Gordon said. “It’s a long, winding process, and we were really disappointed because we had a certificate ready to go before the Supreme Court against Washington on that very topic, and then, of course, we had a change of administration with the Biden administration.” 

For years, environmental groups and local officials have opposed an export terminal in Oakland, sparking a long-running legal fight against the project. 

In 2015, Utah officials backed a proposal for the export terminal in West Oakland, but it was met with opposition from city leaders and environmental groups, according to local media outlet Oaklandside. 

The mayor and city council at the time approved a ban on coal storage and handling, sparking lawsuits by the developers. A federal court ruled in 2018 that the ban cannot apply to the terminal. City officials also terminated the developer’s lease for the land, arguing that it had failed to meet construction deadlines. The developer, Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, later sued the city in 2020 and prevailed in court. 

In a statement, Sarah Ranney, director of Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter, said that residents “have fought for years to keep this terminal from being built in their backyard. Trump is using the DPA, which is meant to mobilize industries during a genuine emergency, to override that opposition. This isn’t national defense, it’s an end run around local democracy.”

SMALL NUCLEAR REACTORS COULD BE OPERATIONAL BY 2030, REGULATOR SAYS IN FIRST INTERVIEW

As part of the announcement last week, the president is providing funding to support 13 coal plants across the country, including in West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Arizona. The Energy Department would also provide grant funding to build two new coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia and to restart a plant in Maryland.

Over the past year, the DOE has been issuing emergency orders to keep aging coal plants operating to prevent blackouts during peak summer and winter seasons. The department has issued nearly 19 emergency orders to prevent facility closures, including the closure of five coal-fired power plants.