Action needed this morning.

If you have time to write a comment this morning, Terry Weschler will deliver them today. He needs your unsigned comment with permission to sign your name, by 1pm today.

Shell RfR's are due by 5/9. Not postmarked by. I'm driving to Mt. Vernon. If any of you could get comments done by *this morning!* and would like me to hand carry them, you can send them to me, unsigned, as attachments to an email, with instructions to sign your name for you. I'll need them by 1pm.

This item is a new angle to include:

 In addition to comments, please contact the governor's office and request that the state, through Ecology or EFSEC, assume lead agency status. (SEPA governing rule is pasted below) Note in  your request that the governor received $300,000, appropriated by the legislature for his budget, to give to Ecology to study the state-wide impacts of crude by rail proposals, specifically:
Puget Sound, Grays Harbor, and the Columbia River will be included in the marine portion of the study. The inland portion of the study will include the entire oil transportation corridor. The study looks at:·         the current and anticipated transportation pictures for marine and rail.·         the current and anticipated safety pictures for marine and rail.·         any existing gaps.Based on these findings, the study will inform recommendations for public health, safety and environmental concerns; statement of safety benefits vs. the cost of implementation; recommendation for funding programs; and a risk communication strategy.

For more information, see http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/spills/oilmovement/2014MRstudy.html. These studies are the functional equivalent of a limited regional cumulative EIS.

Please put out a call to action to folks about the Shell Anacortes crude-by-rail (CBR) proposal. Skagit County Planning and Development Services issued a mitigated determination of nonsignificance (MDNS). There will be no EIS for what is now the 4th refinery CBR proposal in Whatcom and Skagit Counties. Skagit County is accepting requests for reconsideration through close of businessFriday, but they must be received by then, NOT postmarked. I think it is more important for us to immediately ask the governor's office to direct either the state department of Ecology or EFSEC to intervene and assume lead agency status, to conduct a joint EIS with the county as is occurring with the coal terminals.  (See governing SEPA rule below.***)

I am asking people to contact the governor's office on issues related to fossil fuels, and to do so via our ex-director of Ecology, now on his staff:

Ted Sturdevant, Executive Director of Legislative & Policy Office:   ted.sturdevant@gov.wa.gov

One basis upon which the county issued the MDNS was lack of jurisdiction over mitigations relating to rail and vessel traffic beyond the site. That should not preclude the county from conducting the EIS, but in addition to lacking jurisdiction, they lack the necessary expertise. The state legislature, on the other hand, just allocated $300,000 to the governor to give to Ecology to study the state-wide impacts of crude by rail proposals, specifically:

Puget Sound, Grays Harbor, and the Columbia River will be included in the marine portion of the study. The inland portion of the study will include the entire oil transportation corridor. The study looks at:

· the current and anticipated transportation pictures for marine and rail.

· the current and anticipated safety pictures for marine and rail.

· any existing gaps.

Based on these findings, the study will inform recommendations for public health, safety and environmental concerns; statement of safety benefits vs. the cost of implementation; recommendation for funding programs; and a risk communication strategy.

Carol S. sends her comment as encouragement. Use this as a template and send a copy to Terry or send it to Gov Inslee's office via Ted Sturdevant ted.sturdevant@gov.wa.gov  

It is not clear why you have not yet responded to the public questions regarding proposals for increases of explosive crude by rail to our state.
The safety, health, well being, property values, water, environment and air quality are "all at risk."
While the first two companies with crude proposals at Grays Harbor-- Westway and Imperium, are receiving a full EIS following scoping period and public comment until May 27th...I am asking for a withdrawal of the MDNS recently issued  for the Shell Refinery and Rail proposal in Skagit County.
Because of the cumulative green house gas emissions along the route and from the Bakken Shale and at the proposed terminals and refineries in the Northwest,  this effect must be studied all the way to the end user. This proposal needs  scoping and a full EIS by The State, Dept. of Ecology, or EFSES, as the lead agency.
The governor was given $300,000 to support the Dept. of Ecology in studying the impacts of "crude by rail" proposals.
We must not enter these dangerous endeavors, such as "crude by rail" and "refining of crude oil" without a full review of consequences to our state, its waterways, air and people. This is absolutely necessary and an obligation, also, in considering clean energy!
Thank you in advance from a concerned citizen of Washington.
_______________________________________________________________________
I give full permission for the signing of my name to any document requesting as I have requested here in this public statement to the office of the governor of the State of Washington. This is my public comment and request regarding the above mentioned MDNS and request for full EIS of Shell Refinery/ and Crude by Rail proposal.