Thanks to The Columbian for moving articles about the oil terminal and Tesoro-Savage to the front page. The poll taken months ago indicating that while a slim majority of Washingtonians felt that the oil terminal was “OK” and at the same time the great majority of those same folks admitted that they knew little to nothing about the terminal situation illustrated the lack of information easily available to the public.
The ramifications of a decision to allow Tesoro-Savage (now represented by a “shell company,” Vancouver Energy, managed by a less-than-senior executive) to build the terminal will put the entire state at risk for potential land-based (blast) or water-based (spill) disaster while providing less actual work than hoped for by the unions.
The nation has been so focused on the concerns and dangers of the Keystone pipeline that we have all missed the more-extreme volumes and dangers associated with the clamor to use our ports, our poorly maintained rail infrastructure, and our vastly unprepared disaster recovery operations.
Please keep reporting this information until a decision has been made by Gov. Jay Inslee. The Port of Vancouver commissioners can’t be trusted to manage this for us.
