Pictures from the Vancouver Tesoro Savage Terminal Hearing & News Links
As promised, here are pictures from the EFSEC
Tesoro hearing in Vancouver WA.
We arrived about 3pm, and checked in at the hospitality suite, one of the Fairgrounds livestock barns. It was freezing, unless you huddled near the heater provided by the local Longshore Union. Thanks go to the many sponsors:
Northwest Steelheaders
Columbia Riverkeepers
Sierra Club; who also coordinated the food!
We had more than just Oreos!
Environmental groups host rally against oil terminal project
Inside the hospitality room set up by oil terminal advocates, a small crowd quietly dined on antipasto skewers and tiny ciabatta bun sandwiches. In an outbuilding across the walkway, throngs of people munched on Oreos and cheered when a man on stage held high a big dead fish.
The Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council scheduled 10 hours of public testimony Tuesday. The hearing is focused on a draft environmental impact statement that outlines the risks of the project.
The opponents, many wearing red shirts, appeared to outnumber the supporters. Speakers came from all over Western Washington and Northwest Oregon. Comments for the first few hours were fairly back-and-forth between supporters and opponents, however.Opponents on Tuesday hammered on the risks involved with four 120-unit trains full of oil traveling through the Columbia River Gorge and into Vancouver every day.“Our safety is in your hands. We urge you to tell Gov. (Jay) Inslee to deny the project,” said Jared Smith, president of the local Longshore union.
Oil-by-rail terminal opponents dominate Vancouver public hearing
Hundreds of people, many in red shirts, filed into a sweeping hall today to testify in favor or against a proposal for an oil-by-rail facility in Vancouver.More than 265 speakers had already signed up to speak about the oil train terminal proposed at the Port of Vancouver USA at the public meeting in Ridgefield, Washington, just after 2 p.m. The meeting is slated to run until 11 p.m., depending on how many more speakers show up.
Those opposed wore red and were chastised for waving signs, then their fingers, in response to anti-terminal speakers, showing their evident supermajority at the hearing.“Our safety is in your hands. We urge you to tell Gov. Inslee to deny the project,” said Jared Smith, president of the local International Longshore & Warehouse Union.During the hearing’s dinner break, a sea of red filled a cool “barn” across from the meeting hall as a rally brought music and speakers together to protest the terminal.The environmental coalition Stand Up to Oil said 1,000 people attended the hearing throughout the day.
Activists in Pacific Northwest Face Off Against Largest Oil-By-Rail Terminal in North America
Vancouver, Washington - Stand on the banks of the mighty Columbia River, and in the foggy mist of a Pacific Northwest winter, you may miss the rail tracks that lie on both of its banks. The panoramic vista will give you a sense of why front-line communities have long vowed to protect it from being expanded into a high-volume fossil-fuel corridor, years before Congress lifted the ban on US crude oil exports in late 2015.
I did go over to the other Hostility Suite.
This just isn't a group of people that get all excited about free teeshirts.
Or free hats. Ed. note- These things were HUGE! I didn't see one on an actual human head, so I have no idea how they fit.
Nope, nobody is wearing a free hat or tee.
They really weren't having any fun.
Yakama Nation voices concerns about proposed oil terminal at Port of Vancouver
“The Yakama Nation asks all people of the Pacific Northwest to stand united with the Yakama Nation in opposing this harmful project that threatens the earth, waters, and air belonging to all of us,” Gerald Lewis said in a news release.
“The Yakama Nation will not negotiate nor agree to so-called mitigation for any violations of our treaty rights; there is no word for ‘mitigation’ in the Yakama language,” he said in a statement. “We do not compromise on these matters of life.”
The state is taking public comments on the project until Jan. 22. More information is available at www.efsec.wa.gov
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