Comment EI-19534
Received or sent (printed as 1/8/2013)
I oppose approving the Tongue River Railroad Company's permit to build a coal-hauling line through the Tongue River Valley in order to export coal to China. Global warming is a very serious issue and the United States has dragged its feet on the issue for a dangerous amount of time. Moreover, the recent discovery of the great extent of thawing methane hydrates (methane bubbles trapped in frozen sea floors, permafrost, and polar ice) shows the perilous situation in which the planet lies as a result of our procrastination. We must act to stop the expansion of fossil fuel projects and immediately convert solely to energy projects that do not use fossil fuels if we are to ever control climate change. As methane hydrates thaw, they release methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. The methane release further warms the planet and subsequently causes the release of yet more methane from methane hydrates, in a potentially unstoppable feedback loop. If we pass the tipping point where global warming is unstoppable, no other human goal is going to matter for long. I repeat, no other human goal is going to matter for long. We will never be able to erradicate female genital mutilation, hunger, illegal slavery, warfare, or that many more diseases from the world. Global warming's consequences upon agriculture, forests, coastal cities, and low-lying nations will be enormous. In fact, even if we immediately stop greenhouse gas emissions, we are still due for five feet of eventual sea level rise from the lag time between greenhouse gas emissions and their heat-trapping ability. Many people's livelihoods will be worsened and ended, even if one cannot precisely tie the harm to specific individuals. This rail line will facilitate the further use of coal, which is a very dirty fossil fuel. Coal pollution not only warms the planet, it also dumps mercury into the environment and contributes to acid rain. In fact, one in six U.S. women already has enough mercury in her body to damage a fetus during a pregnancy. Those pregnancys that are carried to term will harm future people. Coal pollution already kills 10 million people per year and the mercury, a neurotoxin, damages people's valuable cognitive abilities and is a leading source of mercury pollution. Furthermore, exporting coal to a non-democratic country like China, where the people have extremely limited ability to influence government pollution policy and face human rights abuses when they protest is particularly immoral. In light of the above, I argue that the rail line would not qualify as a public convenience and necessity," as would be required for the proposal to proceed. There are many cleaner extant forms of energy which can be alternatively utilized. The cost of inaction on climate change far exceeds the cost of action. We can think ahead. Let us do so. Please refuse the construction of the Tongue River Railroad. I have only touched the surface of the resultant environmental harm which would occur in if the project is allowed to go forward. I have not even broached the damage to wildlife, flood control, property values, traffic fluidity, or noise pollution control if this project proceeds. Thank you."
Submitted by: Peter J. Schweinsberg
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-30186/comment/EI-19534 · back to the docket sheet