by Fred Felleman March 31, 2015 Crosscut
A link to a half-hour radio interview on March 25 with the author
elaborating on this subject can be found on the Speak Up Speak Out Radio website.
Some hailed President Barack Obama’s
recent veto of the Keystone pipeline authorization legislation as an early
Earth Day gift, spelling the project’s death knell. However, his decision was
actually based on process, not policy. While Obama has articulated the science
behind climate change better than any predecessor, his all-of-the-above energy
strategy has opened the floodgates to unprecedented levels of domestic fossil
fuel extraction with lax oversight.
These policies resulted in disasters
such as BP’s
indelible mark on the Gulf of Mexico five Earth Days ago. In typical
fashion, regulators responded with some of the long-needed oversight, but
offshore production soon came roaring back.
Recent oil train derailments,
exposing communities to elevated risks, also reflect the administration’s
policies in the face of the gusher of under-regulated fracked oil as it became
cost-effective to bring to market by rail. While Bakken oil is the primary
source of this incendiary risk, there are still only proposed national
regulations on fracking without consideration of climate impacts. Despite the
growing number of oil-train accidents, only weak requirements for safer tanker
cars are being developed though Sen. Maria Cantwell just introduced legislation
beginning to address this deficiency.
Leases are also being let on public
lands at bargain-basement rates for coal extraction and risky Arctic oil
exploration. Even after Shell Oil’s calamitous attempts to drill in the Chukchi
Sea three years ago, resulting in eight felony convictions and $12.2 million in
fines, the company is pursuing Arctic development this year.
Closer to home, Shell has secured
the ability to use Terminal 5 from the Port of Seattle to maintain their oil
rigs. This is yet another reflection of how the Northwest is being broadly
targeted as the gateway for oil, coal and liquefied natural gas to Asian
markets – all of which contribute unacceptable climate impacts.
Not since the late 1970s, when NW
refineries switched from receiving crude oil from Alberta by pipeline to
tankers from Alaska and elsewhere, have Washington’s waters and communities
been exposed to such a growth in vessel casualties and oil spill risk. Despite
the abandonment of four coal terminal proposals, there are still nearly 20 proposals
for oil, coal, propane and LNG terminals either under review or recently
permitted.
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