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Collection: The Northwest's Pipeline on Rails

Event: Coal and Oil Trains in the Columbia River Gorge

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Next Tuesday, February 9th, Eric de Place will join leaders in the Vancouver, Washington, area for the Columbia River Gorge Commission‘s monthly public meeting. Eric de Place will speak from 12:30-1:00 PM, focusing on the threat of oil and coal trains to the Columbia River and local communities. The Northwest is on the front lines of oil and coal … Read more

Listen In: Oil Trains in the Northwest, Explained

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How much oil currently moves through the Northwest? Where does it come from and where is it going? What are the implications for Northwest communities and our waterways? And what are the next steps to ensure human safety, public health, and environmental protection? Sightline’s policy director and oil train expert, Eric de Place, recently sat down … Read more

Sightline to Testify in Trial of the Delta 5

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Editor’s note 1/14/16: See KING 5’s video coverage of the trial, including testimony from Eric de Place, here. Update 1/15/16: The Delta 5 have been declared not guilty on the obstruction of train charge, meaning there can be no claim of financial harm for restitution. They have been declared guilty only of trespass. The states … Read more

What the Northwest Needs to Know about the Crude Oil Export Ban Lift

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In the wake of a historic agreement at this month’s Paris Climate Change Conference, the United States is expected to take the significantly regressive step of lifting a 40-year ban on crude oil exports, and the Northwest will find itself directly in the path of the oil industry’s plans to dramatically increase crude oil production … Read more

New Report: Northwest Oil Trains Could Drive Growth in Tar Sands

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President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline was without doubt a victory for climate protection. It also left many wondering about the significance other oil infrastructure proposals, such as the 15 rail facilities in the Northwest that could handle a million barrels of crude per day. Would new oil depots on Northwest shorelines really … Read more

Grays Harbor Oil Trains Would be Severely Under-Insured

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Oil train derailments—and the catastrophic fires that often result—are distressingly common features of contemporary North American life. No fewer than 10 crude oil-bearing trains have derailed and exploded since the summer of 2013. The risks to life and limb are plain enough. Less understood is the risk that these oil trains pose to taxpayers, governments, … Read more

Setting the Record Straight on Oil Trains

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Editor’s note: The Seattle Times recently published a guest opinion regarding oil trains. It contained some unfortunate errors. Sightline Policy Director Eric de Place and Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart penned this response.

On September 13, the Seattle Times published an opinion piece by Richard Berkowitz attacking, among other things, advocacy groups, communities worried about oil trains, and research published by Sightline Institute. Unfortunately, his article dismisses the threats that oil trains pose to Northwest cities—and it fails to confront the facts about a rickety, born-yesterday industry.

Here’s a fact: new projects could induce as many as 100 loaded crude oil trains per week to transit Washington. That number, first published by Sightline Institute, comes directly from adding up the industry’s own figures in publicly available permitting documents.

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Why Northwest Doctors Oppose Oil-by-Rail Development

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Doctor's hands, health

“An unacceptable threat to human health and safety.” That’s how more than 300 medical professionals are describing plans to build out crude oil-by-rail facilities in the Northwest.

Responding to concerns about unprecedented oil industry expansion plans in the region—the same schemes that Sightline has been documenting—the Oregon and Washington chapters of Physicians for Social Responsibility analyzed 125 peer-reviewed medical journal articles and other reliable medical sources. They summarized the findings in a February 2015 report, “Position Statement on Crude Oil Transport and Storage,” that connects the proposed projects to increased rates of illness, health care costs, and hospitalizations.

Sightline believes the Physicians’ research is a serious indictment of the projects. So with permission from the authors, we are further summarizing some of the key findings from their research.

Train fires, explosions, and derailments

Perhaps the most obvious health risk of oil trains is their propensity for catastrophic derailments. In fact, at least 10 crude oil trains have exploded recently in North America, the best-known occurring in July 2013 when an oil train in Quebec province killed 47 people.

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The Proposed Longview Refinery: Understanding the Basics

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Earlier this summer, a spate of news stories tried to draw a link between Washington Governor Inslee’s office and the backers of an oil refinery proposed for the shores of the Columbia River at Longview. (The Governor’s office categorically denies supporting the project.) These stories sparked sudden interest in the proposal, which has resulted in substantial confusion for many, in part because the project itself has been shrouded in secrecy and ambiguity.

So to set the record straight, and as a resource to the public, here is Sightline’s review of what we know—and what we don’t—about the Longview Refinery.

The nickel summary

A heretofore unknown firm calling itself Riverside Refining has proposed constructing a so-called micro-refinery at the Port of Longview. According to the limited information now available from the project backers, the refinery would cost at least $800 million to build and have a production capacity of 45,000 barrels per day. According to the proponents, the refinery’s “feedstock” would be composed of one-third renewable biofuels from foreign sources brought in by tanker vessels and two-thirds shale oil delivered by rail from the Bakken formation.

There is no known timeline for the project’s permitting or construction.

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Tacoma’s Ticking Time Bomb

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[prettyquote align=right]”Tacoma, WA, is now the Northwest city most threatened by #oiltrains.”[/prettyquote]

With no fanfare whatsoever, Tacoma has claimed a new, though dubious, distinction: it is now the Northwest city most threatened by oil trains.  As new research by Sightline reveals, a combined 80,000 barrels per day of crude oil—about 8 loaded trains per week—are permitted to travel on a publicly owned railway into the heart of Tacoma’s industrial area. In addition, another 15 loaded trains bound for north Puget Sound refineries can also pass through the city each week.

No other urban center in the region plays host to so much oil train capacity inside city limits.

The risks of oil trains have been made plain by the 10 catastrophic explosions that North America has seen in the last two years, to say nothing of the billion-dollar risk to the public that is virtually uninsured. The two terminals put the people of Tacoma directly in harm’s way of a fiery derailment, the likes of which have become all-too-common in the news.

Uncommonly, though, Tacoma’s local rail system is publicly owned, so unlike other places that see oil trains, the City of Destiny also bears the risk of financial catastrophe from an oil train derailment. It’s a risk so severe that even a single accident might bankrupt the city.

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