OAKLAND — City leaders can add another entry to a long list of legal defeats in their quest to prevent coal from being shipped out of the Port of Oakland.
An appeals court last week upheld a ruling allowing the construction of a large marine terminal on 34 acres of outer harbor land. Coal, reviled locally for its pollutive qualities, may eventually be among the bulk goods brought by rail and stored there, before being shipped overseas.
But that would entail the terminal being built. Construction has never actually begun.
The new ruling by the state’s First District Court of Appeal upholds a 2023 Alameda County Superior Court judge’s decision and seemingly clears a pathway for East Bay land developer Phil Tagami to pursue permits for the development.
Tagami, however, still needs the city to approve permits for construction — a troubled proposition in West Oakland, where there’s a long history of air pollution and higher reported asthma rates than elsewhere in Alameda County.
Mayor Barbara Lee, who took office in April, promised during her campaign to “fight against any attempts to bring coal shipments through our city.”

And meanwhile, the firm that owns a sublease at the property, Insight Terminal Solutions, is suing the city for $1 billion in damages for previous delays to construction.
The appeals court ruling, authored by Judge James Richman, declares “none of the arguments” lodged by the city against allowing Tagami more time at the proposed terminal site have “merit.”
It notes that “the history of cooperation and collaboration” between Tagami, a prominent Oakland developer, has devolved in recent years into a process that is “more like pulling teeth.”
The “coal war,” as it has become known, endured beyond the mayoral administrations of Libby Schaaf and Sheng Thao. On Tuesday, Lee’s representatives did not respond to questions about whether the mayor has discussed the terminal’s future with Tagami.
Tagami has resisted the term “coal terminal” to describe the development, noting his business partners would decide what to ship from the port based on market demands.
Insight Terminal Solutions was once explicitly a coal company, but its new owner, private-equity manager Jon Brooks, has appeared not to be nearly as keen on the product as his late predecessor.
An environmental group, No Coal in Oakland, authored an open letter to Brooks earlier this year urging him “to do the right thing and make the responsible choice: a binding pledge not to bring a coal terminal to Oakland.”
Still, the city’s efforts to ban coal from the city have fallen short, namely because the city failed to secure a written promise from Tagami to not ship the product when he first signed a development agreement in 2013.
In 2023, a judge determined the city could not terminate Tagami’s lease over delays to the terminal’s construction because the hold-up itself was caused by previous lawsuits between the two parties. The appeals court agreed.
“The city’s position,” the new ruling states, “was not made in good faith.”
Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.