In his Dec. 2 letter, “Risks studied before finalizing deal,” Port of Vancouver Commissioner Jerry Oliver says the port’s decision to approve an oil terminal “was not made lightly.”
There was the oil train explosion in Quebec on July 6 that killed 47. The port commissioners probably hoped that explosion was a fluke. But it wasn’t. On Nov. 8, 2013, there was another oil train explosion in Alabama involving new state-of-the-art oil tankers, T108s.
This fracked oil is more volatile than customary crude. For videos of the explosions, Google search “Oil train explosion in Quebec” and “Oil train explosion in Alabama.”
The Vancouver waterfront development will provide many more permanent jobs than the oil terminal, but it might not get finished if 10 miles of oil tankers file past the property daily. The risks of the oil terminal far exceed the benefits of 100 jobs.
