Sierra Club
With the current climate justice movement reaching its full height over the past few years, starting at the end of President Obama’s first term and the announcement of the Keystone XL pipeline, the fight has never been more urgent nor greater. The struggle for environmental, racial, and economic justice goes beyond fighting the immediate opponent, Big Oil, Big Gas, and other fossil fuel barons, it requires a more incisive look at the overall problem, a lack of political, cultural, and personal will in the United States and abroad. The spell of inaction has wafted into our public consciousness and coerces us into laxity and procrastination, be it from mainstream television media, cultural/societal trends, or personal fears of standing out and speaking up.
This trend must stop, and stop immediately, if we are to enhance our society into the clean energy, fossil-free economy that has already began to assert its presence in cities such as Aspen, Colorado, Greensburg, Kansas, and Burlington, Vermont. Although 100% renewable energy is always the goal, or should be, banning dirty oil/crude entry into cities and preventing the tentacles of smog and asthma from slithering in is also a monumental achievement. On July 18, Vancouver, Washington, became the latest recipient of this environmental victory.
Prior to the City Council’s unanimous vote against the building and storage of crude (7-0), a rally and march of approximately 150 people was organized to exemplify the vociferous opposition to crude oil exports. This move is expected to have a heavy influence on existing proposals and would ban all entry of oil-by-rail through the State of Washington.
While this new ruling does not affect the proposed Tesoro Savage crude oil export terminal, the Sierra Club, working in partnership with the Stand Up to Oil Coalition, took this opportunity to demand Gov. Jay Inslee deny the project.
“The actions of Vancouver and Aberdeen show that communities are willing to use every tool in their toolbox to prevent oil terminals in the Northwest,” said Rebecca Ponzio, director of Stand Up To Oil.
The project’s filing from the Department of Natural Resources said the project would “create an increased risk of wildfire ignition along every mile of track used, both from heat and sparks creased by increased daily rail traffic and from catastrophic accidents.”
Additionally, Tesoro Corp. and Savage Cos., operating in tandem under the guise of Vancouver Energy, wanted to build a rail-to-marine oil transfer terminal along the Columbia River that could handle an average of 360,000 barrels of crude a day. The facility would have received a daily average of four crude oil trains, and the oil would temporarily be stored on site and then loaded onto marine vessels for transport to refineries on the West Coast, such as Oakland, California’s proposed refinery at the city’s army base.
The city council has made an important step forward in helping to keep Vancouver and the surrounding communities safe,” Vancouver resident Deborah Romerein said. “We’re hoping this sends a conclusive message to Gov. Inslee that this has got to stop.”
Speaking of keeping communities safe, a major point highlighted during the rally and hearing was the June 3 oil train derailment in Mosier, Oregon, in which sixteen cars on the ninety-six-car train derailed Friday shortly after noon near the Columbia River town of 430. Four cars caught on fire and the same amount of cars leaked 42,000 gallons of viscous Bakken crude shipped in from North Dakota. Workers recovered 10,000 gallons from the town's wastewater system near the site, but there may be more oil in the sewer lines, authorities said. The rest was vaporized, captured by oil booms in the Columbia, or seeped into the soil.
One must also bear in mind that the derailment happened just 600 feet from the local Mosier Community School, full of teachers educating and inspiring future activists, those who have to live with the legacy being left behind.
Among the speakers at the rally was Maria McCormick, a physician and farmer from Mosier. Her children had to be evacuated from the Mosier Community School the day of the derailment. She spoke about how much more catastrophic that accident could have been if the Columbia Gorge wind had been blowing that day, which is a normal occurrence in the area. She thanked the City of Vancouver for protecting communities that have less power to stop fossil fuel companies from increasing the amount of bomb trains on the tracks.
Den Mark Wichar, resident of Hough Neighborhood in Vancouver, praised the City Council’s action. “Hough and eleven other neighborhoods oppose oil-by-rail because of its threat to public safety and climate, and what spills and explosions do to our common air and water. We back the City Council’s decision to protect this community from future reckless oil-by-rail development, and we hope the Governor takes this as clear indication of how Vancouver feels about the Tesoro project, too.”
The vote from Vancouver’s city council follows a similar action in Aberdeen, Washington last Wednesday. There, the City Council voted unanimously to prohibit the location of bulk crude storage and handling facilities. Like Vancouver, Aberdeen faces a large crude oil proposal, Westway, which would handle 17 million barrels of crude per year.
On May 24, Vancouver’s Planning Commission unanimously recommended the approval of changes to the city’s Municipal Code that would prohibit bulk crude oil storage, handling, and refining. By amending the code to also prohibit crude oil refining, the City will ostensibly block any future oil terminal proposals, including projects that would primarily handle tar sands crude oil.
In September 2014, Vancouver’s City Council unanimously passed a moratorium on new oil terminal proposals. The moratorium is scheduled to end in August, and the Planning Commission has recommended the code changes to permanently address the oil terminal issue.
“As a fellow city councilman and Safe Energy Leadership Alliance member I congratulate the City of Vancouver for their vote to not allow any further crude oil infrastructure in their city,” said Peter Cornelison of the Hood River City Council. “We are at the start of a massive shift away from the old fossil fuel economy. The city is taking stepping into the new clean energy era with this decision.”