Energy bill triggers oil-spill fears in Puget Sound
Inslee fights more tankers in Puget Sound
By CECILIA KANG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
An energy bill expected to come before Congress this week could expose Puget Sound to unlimited oil tanker traffic and an increased risk of oil spills, a local lawmaker and environmental groups said Sunday.
Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and environmental, civic and business leaders met in Seattle to discuss the Gasoline for America's Security Act, a bill that would reverse a 28-year-old law that protects Puget Sound by restricting tanker traffic and the capacity of oil refineries.
"We are greatly concerned," Inslee said. "We cannot take another tanker disaster. It would take Puget Sound years and years to recover, if ever."
Inslee said he will fight the bill when it comes to the floor of the House of Representatives later this week.
The bill, passed last week by the Committee on Energy and Commerce, would reverse a 1977 law authored written by former U.S. Sen. Warren Magnuson that restricted oil refining east of Port Angeles to amounts that would be consumed only in the state of Washington.
In a brief section of the far-reaching energy bill, language that strikes the 1977 restriction would effectively allow more oil production in the region and usher in unlimited oil tanker traffic in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound.
The bill follows a recent lawsuit brought by environmental and civic groups against oil giant British Petroleum after it built a pier at Cherry Point, near Blaine. In the case, an appeals court has decided to review whether the BP facility violates capacity regulations. If the energy bill passes, the company would avoid review, and the capacity limits on BP and other refiners would be lifted.
BP could not be reached for comment Sunday.
"One corporation lost a lawsuit and tried to do in legislation that we've enjoyed for 28 years," Inslee said.
advertising
Click to learn more...
The energy bill was drafted after Hurricane Katrina squeezed oil supply and sent gas prices higher in the United States.
"It serves the national interest to increase refinery capacity for gasoline, heating oil, diesel fuel, and jet fuel wherever located within the United States, to bring more reliable and economic supply to the American people," the bill states.
But local environmental and civic groups expressed concern that the bill could harm the environment and businesses in the Puget Sound area.
Even with the Magnuson law in place, oil spills in recent years have tarnished miles of seashore and harmed marine life, with high-profile disasters in the Dalco Passage and off Vashon Island.
And tanker traffic in Puget Sound is already brisk, local environmentalists say.
Each year 600 tankers ply Puget Sound waters. About 4,800 oceangoing vessels pass through the Sound annually.
"Prevention does work," said Mike Sato of the People for Puget Sound environmental group. "The cost of putting the genie back in the bottle after a spill will be very, very expensive."
seattlepi.nwsource.com
A bad case of Not In My Back Yard, eh? You are blowing smoke again, Kenneth.
Diz- |
