I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Vancouver City Council for extending the moratorium on expanding or establishing crude-oil facilities. I offer my encouragement for finding a way to make this moratorium permanent. I would also encourage the city council to find a way to reduce the number of oil trains coming through Vancouver.
In a deplorable response to the oil-by-rail campaign, some legislators in other areas of the state have proposed a pipeline as being a safer alternative. I would argue that the crude oil transported through the state of Washington is extremely dirty oil. Oil from the Bakken oil shale and the Canadian Tar Sands are the most dangerous form of oil available today. It is not just oil. It is a cocktail of chemicals and other flammable substances. It needs to stay in the ground.
No method of transport will be safe. No “clean up” will be sufficient. The only acceptable alternative is an alternative. Wind, solar and a new technology being explored in Portland where turbines are installed in the city’s water pipes, thus using gravity to generate electricity, would all be more suitable alternatives.
Thank you, council members, for your service to the citizens of Vancouver and for standing in solidarity with other rail cities in the state.
