President-Elect Donald Trump shows a great wave of support the industrial Midwest and a network of coal-producing states to win the White House. He had promised to put coal miners back to work in an industry that has shed 200,000 jobs since 1980.
West coal states are dominated by democrats and in order to full fill this commitment Trump has to penetrate Blue Wall.
The latest blockage took place Jan. 3 when outgoing Washington State Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark denied a sublease to Millennium Bulk Terminal in Longview, Wash.
“It’s disappointing,” said Millennium CEO Bill Chapman. “You’d like to have an elected official take into account the needs of the whole state.”
As reported in CNN, “These ports are for the Western United States, and the landlocked states who want to be able to export products overseas need access to those ports,” said Rob McKenna, a former Republican attorney general in Washington state. “I think it raises real constitutional issues when states systematically try to deny them access to those ports.”
Congress also could pass a law treating ports much in the way railroads are governed. Under current law, states are not allowed to block trains just because they don’t like the product they’re hauling.
