Letter: Oil plan generates concern

Port of Vancouver commissioners are again making an end run on behalf of the Tesoro-Savage oil terminal at the taxpayers’ expense.

They are paying $185,000 for lobbyists to influence state legislators in favor of the oil terminal. It will be discussed in the “context of the rail project.”

In the second public meeting, which was essentially a “dog and pony” show, commissioners reaffirmed the closed-door first vote. Commissioner Jerry Oliver minimized the volatility of the fracking crude but six train derailments and subsequent explosions refute that assertion.

The 400,000-gallon spill and explosion in North Dakota and subsequent evacuation of the town’s 2,400 people give concern of the potential explosion of the oil terminal.

In his Jan. 19 letter, “Support Tesoro-Savage,” Jared Larrabee, general manager of Tesoro-Savage, used the same omissions that the Port commissioners did.

His criticism of The Columbian did not include the fact that the newspaper reports the news; it does not make it.

It seems that the proposed waterfront development of condos and shops will provide more long-term jobs and tax revenue than the Tesoro-Savage oil terminal and, certainly, a more clean and safe environment.

Wilfred J. Hudson

VANCOUVER