Six AGs Filed Amicus Brief in Litigation Over Proposed Coal Export Facility

JANUARY 6, 2020

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra led a coalition of six attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of the state of Washington’s position in litigation over the proposed Millennium Bulk Terminal. If constructed, the Millennium Bulk Terminal would be the largest coal export facility in North America, primarily handling coal transported by rail from Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. The amicus brief was filed in support of a brief filed by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, which emphasized that the permit denial decisions “are clearly within the State’s authority to make,” and warned that the plaintiffs’ constitutional claims “constitute nothing more than an attempt to run roughshod over state land use laws and procedures.” The AGs stressed that the notion of ICCTA preemption is a “radical reformulation of historic police-power authority [that], if accepted by the Court, would cripple Amici States’ ability to perform discretionary land use functions” necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens — an authority that “has been recognized for generations.”