By the time this letter is published, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Tesoro-Savage oil terminal will be available on the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council website — click on “DEIS” at http://www.efsec.wa.gov/Tesoro-Savage.shtml
Let’s hope their economic analysis includes the jobs lost as well as gained.
The draft EIS might be flawed. That’s why it is called a draft and why the agencies invite the public to read it, submit comment, and attend the hearings. I doubt, for instance, that EFSEC will get lost property values right. The economic models were developed before oil trains started exploding on a regular basis.
How can Gov. Jay Inslee approve this oil terminal when the cities of Vancouver, Portland, Washougal, Stevenson and Spokane; the Tribes; the Columbia River Gorge Commission; the Vancouver Fire Fighters Local 452; and the Skamania Fire District have expressed opposition or concern? How could Inslee approve of an oil terminal that will lead to certain oil train fires, burns, and deaths?
Check to see if EFSEC projected the number of derailment spills the terminals will generate in 30 years. Check to see if they included the net increases in greenhouse gas emissions, crude-shrinkage during transport, benzene in the water and tank farm explosions.
Speak up and show up.