Don't let them take away your voice! We need State EPA and informed Energy Site Evaluation

via The Columbian

A message from our friends at Stand Up To Oil. 

Please take action and call your Senator.

You have a right to be heard.

Just last month, nearly 2,000 people attended three public hearings, and a record-setting 290,000 public comments were submitted on the proposed oil-by-rail terminal in Vancouver. The public was able to speak up thanks to important laws and rules the ensure your voice can be heard!

After this remarkable turnout several leaders in the State Senate are trying to make it harder for the public to participate in decision making by advancing two measures that would stifle people’s voices. 

We cannot stand by and let that happen. Contact your Senator now and ask them to oppose SB 6224 and SB 6527.

The public has a right to be heard when it comes to the impacts of large energy projects. From coal export terminal proposals to oil-by-rail terminals, we have witnessed the massive outpouring of opposition by tens of thousands because Washington State has instilled and embraced the public input process.

Here’s some more details:

• SB 6224 forces the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) to make recommendations on an energy project, such as a nuclear facility or an oil-by-rail terminal, in half the time allowed today. A recommendation must be made even if EFSECdoes not have all of the information and public input required to make a well-informed decision.
• SB 6527 undermines one of the most important environmental laws we have – the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA).SEPA gives local communities a voice in understanding the impacts to our water, air, land, and transportation systems from a significant project.

Contact your Senator immediately and urge them to stand up for the people of Washington! Act now!

In light of this overwhelming public response, proponents of the proposed fossil fuel terminals and other energy projects are pushing to cut corners and make it harder for the public to weigh in.

Please act today!

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

By Dameon Pesanti, The Columbian 

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.  

 

 Hundreds Show Up To Speak On Vancouver Oil Project by Cassandra Profita OPB/EarthFix

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.

 

R.D. & Robin give their comments

Hundreds weigh in on plan for Vancouver oil terminal The Bellingham Herald

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

Updated: Jan 5, 2016, 3:06pm PST  Portland Business Journal

 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.

Oil terminal  The Daily News

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

By Martha Baskin, Truthout | News Analysis

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

By Kate Prengaman Yakima Herald

“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

Vancouver Oil Terminal Foes Granted EFSEC Review Status

Oil terminal foes granted full voice in review

By Eric Florip,    The Columbian     March 26, 2015

The state panel reviewing a proposed oil terminal in Vancouver will allow more than a dozen parties to take part in the upcoming adjudication process surrounding the controversial project.

The Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council this week formally granted “intervenor” status to a host of groups that have opposed or expressed concerns about the proposal by Tesoro Corp. and Savage Companies, which would build the nation’s largest oil-by-rail terminal at the Port of Vancouver.

EFSEC’s order allows those groups to participate “without condition or restriction” — a rejection of an earlier request by Tesoro-Savage to place limits on their participation.

The decision allows cities, environmental groups, Native American tribes and others to have a say in the judicial trial that will help determine the oil terminal’s fate. Some hail from far outside Vancouver: The list of intervenors includes advocacy group Spokane Riverkeeper and the city of Spokane, which sits along the rail route that would deliver millions of gallons of crude oil to Vancouver each day.

That route also includes the Columbia River Gorge.

“We’re pleased with the (EFSEC) decision,” said Nathan Baker, staff attorney for Friends of the Columbia Gorge, which is among the groups that will have a voice in the process. “We’ve always been very concerned about this project, and we intend to participate fully in the adjudication.”

Adjudication hearings will likely be scheduled for later this year, said EFSEC spokeswoman Amanda Maxwell. Locations will include Vancouver; whether they venture to other parts of the state will be up to the council, she said. In 2013, during an earlier phase in the review, EFSEC held a public hearing on the Vancouver terminal in the Spokane area.

The project’s draft environmental impact statement, meanwhile, is due out later this spring, Maxwell said. In addition to triggering another round of public comment, the sweeping document will also shape the upcoming adjudication process.

Fifteen groups filed to intervene in this latest stage of the review:
• Earthjustice, on behalf of the following eight groups: Columbia Riverkeeper, Climate Solutions, ForestEthics, Friends of the Columbia Gorge, Vancouver’s Fruit Valley Neighborhood Association, Sierra Club, Spokane Riverkeeper and Washington Environmental Council.
• The city of Washougal.
• The city of Spokane.
• The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
• Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.
• Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
• Columbia Waterfront LLC, the company proposing a $1.3 billion residential-commercial redevelopment of Vancouver’s waterfront.
• The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 4 in Vancouver.

Because the proposal is located in Vancouver, the city did not have to file a petition to intervene, but will be included in the process. The city opposes the project.

Tesoro and Savage want to build a terminal capable of handling an average of 360,000 barrels of crude per day, or about four oil trains daily. The facility would receive oil by rail, then transfer it to marine vessels en route to other West Coast locations......    more here