At its June 2 meeting, the Vancouver, Washington City
Council approved a resolution opposing a proposed crude oil handling facility despite
urging port leaders to let the project make its way through the environmental
review process before taking a vote of any kind on it.
The project in question, the Vancouver Energy Distribution
Terminal, is a joint venture between the port’s longtime tenant Tesoro and
logistics company Savage.
The two would bring North American crude oil by rail to the
port where it would then be loaded onto marine vessels and shipped to US West
Coast refineries in Alaska, Washington and California.
The port’s Board of Commissioners approved a 10-year lease
Oct. 22, 2013.
The Council’s five-to-two vote against the project followed
seven hours of testimony offered by more than 100 people, including both project
supporters and opponents, about 38 of whom were industry representatives.
Testimonies by port representatives focused on the Energy
Facility Site Evaluation Council review currently underway and asked the Council
to allow that process to complete its work, which includes determining what
needs to happen to ensure that the facility can operate safely.
Port CEO Todd Coleman said the city’s resolution ignores
that crude oil trains are already traveling through the community and “asks us
to overlook the realities of crude oil transport and pretend that by ‘just
saying no’ we can make it all go away.”
Coleman also said “a more productive approach would be for
all of us to work collectively to ensure the safe transit of these types of
commodities, putting appropriate regulations and robust government oversight in
place to protect our communities and the environment.”
