Re: Environmental concerns over oil-by-rail project could impact California gas prices
Author: mook
Date: 07-23-2014 - 12:53
Same article appeared in several other places.
If you read beyond the first paragraph, you'd find that the project in question is in WA state, and the NIMBYs/etc. trying to block it are the same ones who don't want coal or oil trains anywhere in the Pac NW, but especially not for export. They apparently got the City of Vancouver to sign on because they raised the spectre of Lac Megantic in the middle of town - which seems unlikely given the different railroads and topography. The only connection to CA is that some of the oil hauled to the proposed terminal might be barged to CA to replace imported oil that arguably costs more (would it still, after all the extra handling of the Bakken?).
There are projects (Valero's and Phillips' for instance) in CA that will take full-sized oil trains directly. Those of course are also targets for the Not Here crowd, but at least they make more economic and transportation sense - and safety too, because the more times you handle the stuff the greater the potential for something going wrong.