With American demand for coal in decline, the coal industry has turned its attention to rapidly expanding Asian markets. The Powder River Project plan is to extract 140 million tons of coal per year from the Powder River Basin and ship it overseas via deep-water ports in Washington and Oregon. Each day, over fifty mile-and-a-half-long trains, laden with Powder River coal, will travel from Wyoming and Montana, thundering through hundreds of rural towns to ports in the Pacific Northwest. The near-constant stream of escaping coal dust imposes toxic environmental pollutants and a myriad of health risks on the communities through which the trains travel.
However the impacts are not limited to the Pacific Northwest. Environmental experts warn that the amount of carbon emissions produced by burning the Powder River coal deposit would result in cataclysmic and irreversible impacts on global climate change
Momenta focuses on the issue of coal exports in the Pacific Northwest, including its impacts on our local communities, the environment and America’s energy future. Produced by Protect Our Winters and Plus M Productions, and presented by SnoCru, Momenta is narrated by world renown mountaineer Conrad Anker, and features activist and author Bill McKibben, professional snowboarders Jeremy Jones and Lucas Debari, and a host of community and environmental leaders from the throughout the Pacific Northwest and Northern Plains.
