The City of Oakland kissed more than 1,000 potential union jobs goodbye this week in the name of public health and climate change.
By a unanimous vote Monday, the city council approved an ordinance prohibiting the handling and storage of coal and petroleum coke in the city. The move effectively kills a developer's plan to export coal from a new terminal at the old army base in West Oakland—a plan that was projected to create 1,000 construction jobs and 120 permanent jobs in a poor area of the city.
The prospect of increased employment wasn't worth the risk to public health or the environment, the council ultimately decided.
"It's not just about making a dollar," said Council Member Noel Gallo. "It's also about social responsibility."
Mayor Libby Schaaf similarly said the city was rejecting a “false choice” between jobs and public safety.
Monday's vote could invite a legal challenge from the terminal’s developer, who signed an agreement with the city in 2013. It follows more than a year of fierce debate between environmentalists, labor activists and the energy industry.
Read more about the new ordinance here.
Image Credit: Flickr User takver, https://flic.kr/p/6w7Qxu via (CC BY-SA 2.0)