(ed. note: check out the comments section)
By Al Fischer, Vancouver TheColumbian
Published: January 21, 2016, 6:00 AM
In his Jan. 11 letter, “Allow for rational review of project,” Tom Nelson knows we are not blinded sheep to feed on right-wing propaganda, which his British political hot air is. Reviewers show that Matt Ridley (“The Rational Optimist”) was writing what the rich bureaucrat haters’ “deregulators” like to hear. Facts concerning fossil fuel contamination of our atmosphere cannot be kept under cover any longer. The transfer of oil, much of it volatile Bakken oil, by rail as proposed is questionable because derailment fires cannot be mitigated and derailment cannot be prevented. The now-public environmental impact statement mentions only three derailment disasters when there actually have been 11 — 3 in 2013, 3 in 2014, and 5 in 2015 — in two-and-a-half years. It is alleged that the executive summary of the statement “does not even mention any derailment, fires, or fatalities.” Our Port of Vancouver commission, while otherwise providing great leadership, have been asked to reconsider their proposal. Opponents of the proposal, under great leadership, have thousands of followers and have stopped other coal/oil proposed projects up and down the Washington Coast. There is good reason now for the port commissioners to follow the counsel of the people. Anyone may still write to the state council by email to mattk1@atg.wa.gov, or you can address your concern to the governor’s office.
Friends of Columbia Gorge have everything you need to make a comment. The state is taking public comments on the project until Jan. 22. Direct link to comment: www.efsec.wa.gov
Friday, January 22nd is the deadline for the Vancouver Tesoro-Savage Oil Terminal EIS comment period.
Friends of the Columbia Gorge have broken down some talking points to help us write our comments. It's very easy to pick a topic and expand on it.
Summary: The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Tesoro Savage oil terminal explains that Tesoro’s project would have significant direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts on communities along the Columbia River. Rail communities and the Columbia River Gorge would be exposed to public safety risks from likely derailments, oil spills, fires and explosions. The DEIS does not adequately address the project’s contribution to global warming, and the mitigation measures proposed in the DEIS are vague, speculative, and unlikely to be successful. Despite these defects, the DEIS confirms that the Tesoro project is a threat to public safety and the environment—giving the Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) and Governor Jay Inslee more than adequate justification for rejecting Tesoro’s project. The full text of the DEIS is available for download
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
The Port of Vancouver, looking east from Terminal 5
Incredible testimony from the firefighter union at the Port of Vancouver. The ILWU president also
testified against oil in front of a packed house opposed to oil.
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
