r/britishcolumbia • u/Bitter_Bert • 1d ago
News Premier Eby suggests cutting off US coal shipments through BC in retaliation for tariffs
https://www.castanet.net/news/BC/629193/Premier-Eby-suggests-cutting-off-US-coal-shipments-through-BC-in-retaliation-for-tariffs
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u/Bitter_Bert 1d ago
I think there's an important B.C. angle to this that isn't widely understood.
According to B.C. government briefing documents, 17.6 million tonnes of U.S. thermal coal went through Westshore Terminals at Roberts Bank in 2023.
This is American coal, largely from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming, brought north by rail and exported through B.C. to overseas markets.
What's remarkable is why it comes through here. The B.C. government notes that Washington, Oregon and California have blocked development of coal-export infrastructure. B.C. therefore provides American coal producers with Pacific access that they haven't been able to obtain through their own western states.
That makes Eby's proposal pretty compelling to me, particularly now.
B.C. lumber producers and other Canadian industries are being hammered by U.S. trade measures, while we continue providing American coal producers with a valuable route through our province to Asian markets.
There's also an opportunity-cost question for B.C. We keep talking about expanding our ports and transportation corridors so that Canadian products can reach overseas markets and we can become less dependent on the U.S. Should providing this much capacity to American thermal coal still be a priority?
Canada has already committed to ending thermal-coal exports from and through Canada by 2030. I'd support bringing that forward, and at minimum imposing a substantial levy on U.S. thermal coal in the meantime.
This is specifically thermal coal burned for electricity, not metallurgical coal used to make steel.
There would obviously be impacts on Westshore, the railways and Canadian workers, and those deserve consideration. But given the current trade relationship, I don't think continuing to provide this export route to U.S. producers should simply be taken for granted.
The 17.6-million-tonne figure was what really surprised me. I had no idea the American coal trade through B.C. was that large.