The "Strong Support for Coal" article was pathetic. The Ferndale Gateway Pacific Terminal "scoping meeting" was supposed to be about taking comments from the public on environmental impacts and mitigation, but I believe the first two hours were wasted by job trumpeters who had nothing to say except, "Give us jobs, jobs, jobs." I believe GPT is all about dirty coal being mined, railed, stored, shipped and burned in China. If all we care about are jobs, then it's time to begin pushing for "real" job development. Why not build a coal-fired power plant and new steel-making facility at Cherry Point or a mega-distribution warehouse for ChinaMart? We send coal to them and they send consumer goods back to us, all the while, keeping the longshoreman busy.

I believe we should put a screeching halt to the Gateway project and determine what kind of "clean alternative" we could use our deep-water port for. Terminal trumpeters called people like me radical, anti-job, naysayer, NIMBY, fear-monger, and more, but in reality we are against coal, not jobs.

I believe coal needs to stay in the ground. The buildup of CO2 is destroying our climate and the habitability of our planet. Droughts, floods, hurricanes, fires and other climatic disasters are intensifying. Crops are being destroyed, water and air polluted, habitat and livelihoods lost. We need jobs that lead to a "livable and sustainable" future, not jobs that destroy life's fragile foundation.

I believe GPT has far too many serious environmental impacts that cannot be practically mitigated as coal opponents amply highlighted during the last two hours of the meeting. Strong support for coal? I think not.

Dennis Smith

Deming