Another proposed coal export terminal has folded. Ambre Energy is asking to be let out of a lease agreement with the Port of Corpus Christi, saying that shipping Powder River Basin coal out of Texas is no longer viable.
The company had planned to ship 1.5 - 2.5 million tons of coal out of the facility every year. Its decision to pull out is latest in a string of roughly half a dozen planned terminals that have been tabled or scrapped in the last year.
Environmental groups are saying it's a sign that the writing is on the wall for the company’s remaining planned export terminals, in Washington and Oregon.
“Folks do not want coal export terminals, they don’t want coal coming through their backyards, and they don’t want it to be burned in Asia," says Sierra Club spokesperson Krista Collard says. "So I think it’s just another sign that they’re going to go down here in the Northwest.”
But an Ambre Energy spokesperson said in a written statement that the decision to pull out of Corpus Christi is in line with their goal to “establish a US coal export business through the Pacific Northwest, and to do so as quickly as possible.”
With the demise of the Ambre Energy project, there are no more plans to ship coal out of Corpus Christi.