OCA hosted an event centered around the risks of oil transport in our local marine waters on July 11, 2014, featuring Clallam County Commissioner Mike Doherty and the film The Big Fix. Here is a slideshow from that program detailing the risks to our local marine waters and economy from proposals to expand oil export facilities in the Salish Sea.
These facilities cannot be built without passing public scrutiny, and it is important to make your voice heard. Here is a message from Laura Ackerman, Clean Air Healthy Communities Committee Chair, Sierra Club Washington State Chapter:
Big Oil sees Washington State as nothing more than a loading dock for shipping their dangerous, climate-killing products — and each new proposal puts our communities, rivers and coastline at risk. Right now, BP is fighting to increase the amount of crude oil coming in and out of the Cherry Point Refinery through the Salish Sea and on dangerous trains running through Washington communities. Luckily, a court-mandated environmental impact assessment may protect Washington from this expansion of oil traffic. Take action now to support environmental protection!
This all started in 2001, when BP built a second pier at their refinery just north of Bellingham at Cherry Point without a thorough environmental review to assess the pier’s impact and the risks to our communities and waterways. But thanks to the efforts of several environmental groups, the courts directed the Army Corps of Engineers to do the environmental assessment that should have happened over a decade ago. The draft version of this report was released in May, and now they want the public to weigh in.
Whether it’s expanding the Cherry Point Refinery or building oil export terminals at Grays Harbor or the Port of Vancouver, Big Oil’s plans for Washington mean increased danger of disastrous oil spills and even more explosive oil trains traveling through our communities. These plans are all risk and no reward for Washingtonians.
Olympic Climate Action 