The lease amendment for the Vancouver Energy rail-to-marine oil terminal was put to rest Tuesday morning, but not before another round of rancor over the proposed terminal, which would be the nation’s largest.
Having heard enough about the project in the past few weeks — including at a daylong public hearing April 12 — Port of Vancouver Commissioner Jerry Oliver tried to cut off public comment before it started at the top of the port’s Tuesday morning meeting.
“They don’t come down to talk. They come down to protest,” Oliver said of terminal opponents.
Commissioners Brian Wolfe and Eric LaBrant, however, both pushed to hold the public comments, as they are a regularly scheduled part of the biweekly meetings. When Oliver invoked his authority as president of the commission, Wolfe fired back: “We didn’t elect you to shut down public comment.”
Oil terminal opponents were thus allowed to state their concerns that the terminal would contribute to climate change, hurt Vancouver’s reputation and put the environment and public health at risk. They also took on Oliver, a terminal supporter.
“It’s bad enough you don’t listen to us when we speak, and now you want to silence us,” said Cager Clabaugh of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 4.
The commissioners approved a lease amendment April 15 that allows the 360,000-barrel-per-day terminal to march on through the state permitting process without the looming threat of early termination or a huge spike in costs for the company. Vancouver Energy, a joint venture of Tesoro Corp. and Savage Cos., will face adjudication hearings in front of the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council this summer before the council sends a recommendation to the governor, who has final say over the project.
The amendment increases Vancouver Energy’s monthly costs and gives the company through March 31 to get its permits or again risk a lease termination.
The amendment was finally made publicly available at Tuesday’s meeting, and commissioners agreed that it was the language they had approved, plus a ban on foreign export of oil from the terminal “to the extent such (a) restriction is permissible under all applicable law.”
Dan Serres, conservation director for Columbia Riverkeeper, chastised the port for withholding the lease documents for so long.
“I don’t understand why you would hold a protracted public hearing and the outcome of that process is behind closed doors,” he said.
The commissioners signed the amendment following Tuesday’s meeting, after Vancouver Energy had on Friday, ending that battle but prolonging the fight over the terminal into next year or beyond.
