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SW: →Activists rally in Portland against exporting coal from Northwest ports: section added
{{#evp:youtube|caCR3rd5Zsw|Coal Rally Against Exporting Coal Through Pacific Northwest.|right|200}}
On May 7, 2012 several hundred activists gathered in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square to oppose the export of Montana and Wyoming coal from Northwest ports. Activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chief prosecuting attorney for Hudson Riverkeeper and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, spoke to the crowd. Kennedy said that coal would corrupt politicians, damage health and the environment and "turn government agencies into the sock puppets of the industries they're supposed to regulate."<ref>[http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2012/05/activists_rally_in_portland_ag.html "Kennedy, activists rally in Portland against exporting coal from Northwest ports"] Scott Learn, Oregonian, May 7, 2012.</ref>
===Activists vow to target coal in Wyoming===
In May 2012, coal activists in Wyoming said they were planning a number of confrontational civil disobedience protests throughout the summer against coal mines in the [[Powder River Basin]]. The group, dubbed West By Northwest, set up an action camp near Cheyenne that would be a "place to build constructive solutions to preventable human and environmental catastrophes related to coal exports."<ref>[http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2012/05/29/from-wyoming-with-love-2/ "From Wyoming With Love"] Sparki, It's Getting Hot in Here, May 29, 2012.</ref>
The goal of the protests, said a High Country Rising Tide leader associated with organizing the events, is to interrupt business at the mines with “arrestable” activities.<ref>[http://highcountry.risingtidenorthamerica.org/2012/05/casper-star-tribune-coal-protest-movement-hits-wyoming/ "Coal protest movement hits Wyoming"] Jeremy Pelzer, Casper Tribune, May 17, 2012.</ref>
==EPA releases list of 44 "high hazard" coal ash dumps==
