Daines, Zinke on Pausing the Gateway Pacific Terminal Review

Senator Steve Daines and Representative Ryan Zinke issued the following statement after Pacific International Terminals, Inc. announced that they are voluntarily requesting the Army Corps of Engineers to pause the draft Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal infrastructure project.

“The federal government is clearly slow walking the approval process on the Gateway Pacfiic Terminal as part of its effort to destroy coal jobs,” Daines stated. “The Gateway Pacific Terminal would provide access to international markets for Montana coal and agriculture products – including Crow coal – creating much needed good-paying union and tribal jobs. I appreciate the commitment the Crow Tribe’s partners have had to this project and know their commitment will continue. I will continue fighting against this bureaucratic assault on Montanans’ livelihoods.”

The project is expected to create more than 4,000 jobs and has a diverse coalition of support from groups including the Crow Nation, local labor unions, business organizations, the agriculture industry, and local governments.

“Thanks to political pressure and the environmental special interests, the Gateway Pacific Terminal is suffering the same bureaucratic death as the Keystone XL Pipeline,” Zinke stated. “The Crow need and deserve for this project to go through; and frankly, there’s no reason it shouldn’t have been approved in a timely, transparent, and fair manner. While I’m disappointed to see the project further delayed, I support the Crow and their partners doing what will best ensure fair treatment and lead to completion of the project.”

The Gateway Pacific Terminal is a proposed deep-water port in Washington State, just north of Seattle, that would create a port for Montana exporters to access markets in the Pacific Rim via a rail line.