Trains full of North Dakota crude oil are chugging toward the Pacific Northwest.
The Daily News of Longview reports the oil is bringing jobs and business opportunities to the Lower Columbia region but it also is raising fears that the river will become a fossil fuel highway.
Last year, oil cars began leaving the Bakken shale region centered near Williston, N.D., en route 1,200 miles to Columbia County to be unloaded at Port Westward near Clatskanie.
Earlier this year, Tesoro proposed to build a $100 million terminal at the Port of Vancouver that would create 80 jobs. And similar proposals are being considered in Tacoma and Grays Harbor County. The oil would be loaded onto barges and sent to West Coast refineries.
