EFSEC gives opponents of oil terminal more time

Opponents of the proposed Vancouver Energy oil terminal will be granted more time to file post-hearing briefs to the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, the administrative law judge overseeing the issue has ruled.

Judge Cassandra Noble granted a motion for a time extension filed by the city of Vancouver and other opposition parties. They now have until Tuesday to submit post-hearing briefs.

Opponents originally had faced an Aug. 31 deadline.

According to evaluation council documents, “the reason given for this request is the fact that the requesting parties must operate with limited funds, which does not allow them to purchase the voluminous adjudication hearing transcripts for this matter as soon as they are prepared by the court reporter, requiring them to await the general release of the transcripts to the public by (the council).”

Vancouver Energy — a joint venture of Tesoro Corp. and Savage Cos. — is seeking permission to build a terminal on the Columbia River at the Port of Vancouver capable of handling 360,000 daily barrels of crude oil carried by an average of four trains per day.

The oil would be stored in tanks, then loaded onto ships and sent down the Columbia River to refineries elsewhere.

The evaluation council’s adjudication hearing on the project ran from June 27 until July 29. During the trial-like hearing, lawyers for Vancouver Energy and the Port of Vancouver, as well as more than a dozen opponents, made their cases as to why the terminal should or should not be approved.

The evaluation council will make a recommendation to the governor to deny the terminal, approve it with conditions or approve it outright. Their recommendation is expected sometime close to the end of the year, marking three and a half years since the terminal was proposed.

Gov. Jay Inslee has the final say over the project and is expected to decide this year or early next.