Big oil has set its sights on the Pacific Northwest.
There are six terminals proposed for the export of coal, crude oil and liquefied natural gas in Washington state. These terminals would serve to export fossil fuels abroad in unprecedented quantities.
Trains would run from locations in central Canada and the United States to the terminals in Washington. The Vancouver, Wash., terminal alone would process in excess of 300,000 barrels of crude oil every day to be exported to China and India, among other places.
Vast environmental damage is being done in the locations where the fuels are extracted. Even a minor accident on the transit routes could cause extensive damage.
James Hansen of NASA said that if all the fossil fuels we extract are burned, the amount of CO2 put into the atmosphere would be more than life on earth could survive.
For all the above reasons, I am strongly opposed to the building and operation of all of these terminals.
Klaus Liebetanz, Fremont
As a young person growing up in the 21st century, my biggest concern is climate change. I’m scared, as are other young people, about what our future will be on this warming planet.
I don’t want to lose hope, but it’s waning. Thousands have expressed concern over proposed coal trains running through Washington [state]. Now there’s another project on the rise: export of tar-sands crude oil from Washington ports. So my hope further fades.
This oil is deadly in more ways than one. On July 6, a train derailed in Lac-Megantic, Canada, resulting in a fiery explosion, killing 47 residents. Spills are deadly to the ecosystem too. The Gulf of Mexico has yet to recover from the BP oil spill of 2010, and that wasn’t even tar-sands oil. Tar sands are dirtier and remain in the ground after spills.
Gov. [Jay] Inslee has final say on the building of the train terminals. We Washingtonians need to ask ourselves if we will let our ecosystem suffer the affects of tar sands? Or will we lobby to protect our climate? Will we enable the burning of more fossil fuels on this warming planet, which our children will soon inherit? I won’t.
Sara Grendon, North Seattle
In the wake of recent news about the oil train disaster in Lac-Megantic, Canada, I must speak out against the giant fossil-fuel corridor being proposed here in our region.
It is not widely known that in addition to the 18 coal trains that would come through Seattle per day, there would also be many oil-tanker trains. The consequences of an accident in Seattle are too terrible to imagine, to say nothing of the potential for environmental catastrophe in Puget Sound.
In all, more than a dozen major export facilities are being planned in the Pacific Northwest. From Alaska to Oregon, huge amounts of coal, natural gas and oil (much of it dirty “tar sands” oil) will be shipped to Pacific Rim countries every day.
If all this fossil fuel is burned, it will put so much CO2 into the atmosphere that NASA’s Climate scientist Jim Hansen said it will be “game over” for life on this planet.
I must oppose this development. We cannot stand by and hand over the future quality of life on Earth to profit a few fossil-fuel companies.
Michèle Savelle, Fremont
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