Oakland City Council confirms coal ban

The measure is aimed at preventing coal from being handled at a bulk terminal planned at the former Oakland Army Base.    The City Council in Oakland California approved an ordinance that would ban coal from being handled and stored by the city on Tuesday, KRON4 reported.
   The council voted in favor of the ordinance in June, but a second vote was required and passed Tuesday.
   When the Oakland Army Base was shut down in 1993 as part of the base realignment and closure process, roughly half of the facility was turned over to the Port of Oakland and half was turned over to the City of Oakland.
   The Port of Oakland is using its portion of the property for creating warehousing, rail siding and other facilities linked to container traffic.
   Separately, the City of Oakland awarded a contract to develop the other half of the property to California Capital and Investment Group and Prologis. While some of the property is to be developed with warehouse and distribution buildings, railyards, a recycling facility and the bulk terminal were also planned.
   Terminal Logistics Solutions, the company that wants to develop the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, said it needed the ability to attract all sorts of bulk commodities, including agricultural and mineral products at the facility to make it viable, such as coal, which it said accounts for about half of bulk exports from West Coast.