The city of Oakland, California, will not have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to Insight Terminal Solutions, a coal logistics firm once based in Kentucky.
That’s because U.S. District Judge Benjamin Beaton last week threw out a lawsuit against the city brought by the coal company. The Frankfort-based business was contracted to ship 13 million tons of coal a year from a new terminal near the Port of Oakland.
That terminal never got built because of opposition from the city and environmental advocates.
The coal company filed for bankruptcy in 2020 and sued Oakland in federal court in Kentucky in 2024 for $1 billion.
In 2025, a U.S. bankruptcy judge found Oakland may have to pay part of that sum. On Sept. 30, though, Beaton dismissed the case. Among other reasons, he said the case belonged in a California court.
In June, the Trump administration committed $75 million in federal dollars to build the terminal. California lawmakers, though, have thrown up regulatory roadblocks.
Most U.S. coal is produced in western states, but they lack the port capacity to export it to international customers. Mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports are considered too distant.
In 2025, U.S. coal exports declined for the first time in five years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Exports have become a more important market for coal producers as domestic consumption continues to decline.
However, the International Energy Agency forecasts a decline in the global coal trade in 2027, led by thermal coal, the kind used to generate electricity.
