Posted on January 31, 2018
By Joel Connelly, seattlepi
Gov. Jay Inslee has rejected a massive oil-by-rail terminal along the Columbia River in Vancouver, Wash., dealing one more, major blow to projects that would use Northwest ports for shipment of oil and coal.
Inslee cited the potential of a “catastrophic” earthquake, and dangers of an oil spill to aquatic life along the Columbia River.
The $210 million project would have received up to 360,000 barrels of oil a day. The oil would arrive by two long oil trains a day,which would cross the state and come down the Columbia Gorge. The oil would then be transferred for downstream shipment to refineries up and down the West Coast.
Inslee’s decision won fulsome praise from environmental groups that are a key part of The Governor’s political base. It follows a recommendation against the Vancouver Energy proposal late last year by the state”s Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council.
“When weighing all of the factors considered against the need for and potential benefits of the facility at this location, I believe the record reflects substantial evidence that the project does not meet the broad public interest standard necessary for the Council to recommend site certification,” Inslee said in his decision.
The governor, in a letter to the council, cited seismic conditions at the site, saying they “present an unacceptable and potentially catastrophic risk to the public.”
“Second,” said Inslee, “given the proposed location of the facility, I am concerned about the likelihood of an oil spill impacting the Columbia River or reaching the Pacific Ocean . . . To the extent these risks cannot be sufficiently mitigated, they must be avoided.”
It is the latest major defeat for the carbon economy in these parts.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, citing opposition by the Lummi Indians, rejected the huge proposed Gateway Pacific coal export terminal, which would have been located at Cherry Point north of Bellingham.
A second proposed coal export project, the Millennium Bulk Terminals project in Vancouver, has gone to court after rejection of aquatic permits by the state Department of Ecology. Local and Native American opposition killed an oil-by-rail project proposed for the Port of Grays Harbor.
The Port of Vancouver voted in early January not to renew Vancouver Energy’s lease. An anti-oilport commissioner was elected by a landslide last November.
“The Governor put the health of our communities and the Columbia River ahead of the oil industry’s profits,” said Rebecca Ponzio of the Washington Environmental Council. “People across Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest are standing alongside him in this denial. This is what leadership looks like.”
To which Joan Crooks, CEO of Washington Conservation Voters, added: “Governor Inslee made it clear where our state stands — Washington will leave the dirty polluting industries of the past behind and continue leading the clean energy economy.”
(Washington Conservation Voters and the national League of Conservation Voters were major supporters of and contributors to Inslee’s 2012 and 2016 gubernatorial campaigns.)
The oil-by-rail terminal, championed by Tesoro and Savage Energy, was fought over for five years.
The project took a hit in the summer of 2016 when 14 cars of a Union Pacific oil train left the tracks near Mosier, Oregon, in the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area, with four cars catching fire. No oil entered the river.
The sponsors of the proposed oil-by-rail terminal have 30 days to appeal Inslee’s decision to Thurston County Superior Court.
Source: seattlepi
