What’s at stake in the battle over coal?

Filmmakers Jan and Harold Hoem spoke with ranchers, Natives Americans, activists, scientists, physicians and a former coal mine manager to explore the environmental impacts of mining, transporting and the burning coal in their documentary “Coal Road to China.”

The film will air at the Friday Harbor Grange Hall, Tuesday, June 2, beginning at 7 p.m. The screening is co-sponsored by Friends of the San Juans and the Friday Harbor Film Festival.

“Coal Road to China” shines its spotlight on the plans of coal companies to strip mine the Powder River Basin, which straddles the Montana and Wyoming boarder, the transportation of coal by rail to Oregon and Washington state, where it would be loaded onto massive cargo ships bound for Asia.

Among would-be export points is the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal at Cherry Point, near Bellingham Bay, where as much as 48 million metric tons of coal could reportedly be shipped to Asia each year. The amount of shipping traffic through the San Juans’ waterways would greatly increase in both scale and number if the GPT proposals is approved.

“…burning this coal would create 96 million metric tons of CO2 every year and would more than double our state’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions,” according to Friends.

For more about “Coal Road to China,” visit Friday Harbor Film Festival at www.fhff.org. For more on local efforts to “Power Past Coal”, visit Friends of the San Juans at www.sanjuans.org.