Critics of a proposed $53 million California coal terminal allege that the loan given for the project violates federal and state law. Funding in the form of SB242 was approved by the Utah legislature two weeks ago.
Federal law states that mineral lease funds must be used to alleviate the impact of mining through public services. The Utah constitution prohibits the use of public funds for private gains, something that attorney Ted Zukoski said will happen under SB242.
“This is not like a highway that is open to everyone. I’m not sure anyone in Utah will be able to walk into the coal terminal and be able to sell their goods through the terminal,” Zukoski said. “I mean, this is a loan, right? So, my understanding is that whatever the loan says, some money is supposed to come back to whoever loans them the money, which I guess would be the inter-local agency that’s created by the four counties. The question is, will they actually ever get any of that money?”
Proponents of the bill contend that the project will not put taxpayers at risk since the state government is to be reimbursed through the Community Impact Board. Zukoski said that there was inadequate public review of the SB242 plan.
“There was an amendment offered to require some independent financial review of the proposal and the proponents were so afraid of that they killed it,” he said. “They don’t want any independent review of this because they know what that’s going to show as well.”
International coal trading has seen a decline in recent years.
