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!

Gateway Pacific: the Zombie Terminal by Terry Wechsler

Gateway Pacific: the Zombie Terminal

by Terry Wechsler

Some progressives now refer to the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal, or GPT, as “The Zombie Terminal,” because it Just.Won’t.Die.

The public stabbed the coal terminal in the heart roughly 14,500 times with substantive comments on the scope of the environmental impact statements (EIS) being conducted in accordance with the State and National Environmental Policy Acts (SEPA and NEPA).

The Lummi Nation attempted a decapitation with its Jan. 15, 2015 letter to the U.S. Army Corps Engineers (the Corps) in which Chairman Tim Ballew asked the federal government to immediately deny permits in accordance with the Treaty of Point Elliott of 1855.¹

The coal industry has tried to parry these blows with breathtaking brazenness by messaging on behalf of the economically disadvantaged Crow Tribe in Montana which happens to control one of the largest reserves of low sulfur coal in the nation. This fairly transparent and self-serving strategy has been surprisingly effective with political officials.

The Real Players

The National Mining Association created the Count on Coal Montana campaign which has recast the issues and characters and carefully orchestrated stakeholders to get on message. In a March 11, 2015, press release,² the campaign quoted various spokesmen of the Montana coal industry who referred to GPT as “The Crow Terminal” (Count on Coal Montana and Montana Coal Council) and “The West Coast Crow Terminal” (Montana Contractors Association and Montana Chamber of Commerce). The groups’ website, however, does not list the Crow Tribe as a member.³

A self-described “grassroots campaign,” Count on Coal Montana’s members include cities and county commissions across Montana, business groups including the Montana Coal Council and labor organizations. Conspicuously absent from its supporters is the Crow Tribe.⁴

The notion that Montana’s taxing authorities, business organizations and labor unions support the permitting of GPT to benefit a Montana tribe is the latest salvo in a multi-pronged campaign invoking both the U.S. Constitution’s Article One’s “Dormant Commerce Clause” and the Fifth Amendment’s “takings provision.”

The Zombie Fights Back

Montana’s legislature recently approved $1 million in seed money for a litigation fund in the event Washington dared to invoke SEPA and deny permits for GPT.⁵ Perhaps the most aggressive action to date was the introduction by Montana’s U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican, of an amendment to the 2016 national defense budget. If passed, SA 1809 would require the Corps to complete an EIS before making a determination under the Treaty of Point Elliott.^{6       -continued below-}