A ruse to ship Montana/Wyoming coal to China, via scenic rural northern California?

The Lost Coast Outpost reports here under the headline, "Aiming to Ship Coal Out of Humboldt Bay, Shadowy Corporation Makes Bid to Take Over NCRA Line."  Here's an excerpt from the story by Ryan Burns: 

Unidentified coal companies appear to be behind a new backdoor effort to acquire the North Coast Railroad Authority’s right-of-way between Eureka and Willits and rehabilitate the defunct railroad, all so they can export coal to Asian markets via the Port of Humboldt Bay.

State Senator Mike McGuire calls this development “one of the largest environmental threats to hit the North Coast in decades.”

On Aug. 16, a mysterious, newly formed corporation called North Coast Railroad Company, LLC, filed a pleading with the Surface Transportation Board. Ostensibly a proposal to submit an “Offer of Financial Assistance” to rebuild the line, the filing makes a number of surprising claims.

For one, the 14-page filing, submitted by a pair of Chicago attorneys, says NCRCo. is “capitalized to the tune of $1.2 billion” and has “thoroughly-developed plans” to acquire and rehabilitate the dilapidated rail line between Humboldt Bay and Willits. Once complete, the company says, this newly reconstructed railroad will move “high-volume shipments” between the San Francisco Bay Area and Humboldt Bay.

The document does not disclose what these “high-volume shipments” might contain. Nor does it identify anyone involved with the corporation.

The pleading prompted an incredulous response from the North Coast Rail Authority (NCRA), the state agency that spent 30 years trying to resuscitate that same stretch of railroad but is now, under McGuire’s leadership, working to develop the Great Redwood Trail, a multi-use pathway extending 320 miles along the agency’s right-of-way.

NCRCo., the opaque corporate entity, appears to be trying to derail this rails-to-trail effort by submitting a last-minute “Offer of Financial Assistance” (OFA) to rebuild the line. Federal law holds that the Surface Transportation Board must give priority to maintaining or restoring a rail line wherever possible.

This story first came to my attention last night when California State Senator Mike McGuire tweeted about it.  He represents northern coastal California, from Sonoma to Del Norte counties.  You can sign a petition against the coal train project here.

The anonymous trickery here reminds me of the use of limited liability corporations LLCs to protect the owners of  concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) from liability for industrial agriculture pollution.