Category Archives: Issues

Port of Lewiston Wins Dock-Expansion Grant

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Meanwhile, Port of Whitman loses bid for money to replace railroad bridges

The region’s barging system, not rail, was a winner in a federal grant program that will provide $1.3 million for the Port of Lewiston to expand its dock.

The $2.9 million dock extension was the only Idaho project to be awarded money from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grant program.

The port estimates the project will create 48 jobs by 2023, assuming the annual number of containers the port handles grows from the 3,653 it handled last year to 16,000. Continue reading →

Montana Closes Book on Plan to Roll Mega-Loads Across U.S. 12

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The two-year battle between residents who live along U.S. Highway 12 and ExxonMobil’s mega-loads is formally over.

“We’re gratified that the industrialization of the beautiful Lochsa-Clearwater U.S. 12 corrdior has, for now, been stopped,” wrote Borg Hendrickson to Citydesk.  “And that the Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil threat to north-central Idaho’s outdoor recreation paradise and its single growing industry, tourism, has been removed.”

It was July 2010 when BW first told you about something called “mega-loads” – hundreds of giant rigs of oil equipment that ExxonMobil wanted to crawl across U.S. 12, before heading north to the oil-rich tar sands of Alberta, Canada.

Read more: Montana Closes Book on Plan to Roll Mega-Loads Across U.S. 12

(By George Prentice, Boise Weekly)

Lewiston Port Approves Dock Expansion Spending

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Budget includes $2.9 million for container dock project

The biggest item in a budget Lewiston port commissioners passed Wednesday is a $2.9 million container dock expansion.

The action came just minutes after David Doeringsfeld, the port’s manager, described the port’s primary mission as job creation and retention, not getting barges up and down the river.

More than doubling the length of the 125-foot dock is consistent with that goal, Doeringfeld said after the meeting. Continue reading →

Megawoes on Megaloads

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A scene from the documentary film Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands

Idaho activists try to fire-up public over trafficking of tar-sands equipment

In the opening scenes of the documentary Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands, a helicopter glides over Alberta’s Athabasca River.  Wending through a boreal forest the size of Greece, the river and its attendant countryside is as rugged and beautiful as any in the world.  Then, over a rise, gargantuan smokestacks suddenly spear the sky, lording over a landscape that can only be described as apocalyptic: the single largest source of CO2 emissions in North America.

These are the oil sands, a geological formation in which vast quantities of bitumen lie just below the earth’s crust — the largest proven reserves of oil in the world.

More than 1,000 miles to the south, cities like Moscow and Coeur d’Alene, along the I-90 and U.S. 95 corridors, are front and center in the development’s debate.

Read more: Megawoes on Megaloads

(By Zach Hagadone, Boise Weekly)

Northwest Extraction Resistance Workshop Introduction

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Participant Shannon Ross recorded the Northwest Resource Extraction Resistance Workshop Introduction in Spokane on Friday evening, June 8, when four Blues Skies Campaign colleagues and Portland Rising Tide trainer Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky presented slides and descriptions of coal export train issues from their respective Montana and Oregon perspectives.  Off-camera afterwards, Sierra Club organizer Walter Kloefkorn summarized Spokane and Washington coal train concerns and actions, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide activist Helen Yost talked and showed a video about Alberta tar sands operations and Idaho megaload resistance.

Flashpoints Interview of Nick Engelfried, Helen Yost, & Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky

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On Wednesday evening, June 6, Flashpoints radio show host Dennis Bernstein talked with Nick Engelfried of Blue Skies Campaign in Missoula, Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky of Portland Rising Tide and Columbia Riverkeeper in Portland, and Helen Yost of Wild Idaho Rising Tide in Moscow about the Northwest Extraction Resistance Workshop in Spokane on June 8 and 9 and about regional protests of coal export trains, tar sands megaloads, and natural gas fracking.  The program aired on KRFP Radio Free Moscow on the same night and can also be downloaded from KPFA Free Speech Radio in Berkeley.  Listen to between 21:31 and 36:50 of this nationally broadcast episode or to the 14-minute discussion excerpted and uploaded online by Tom Hansen of Moscow.  Thanks, Dennis, Tom, and KPFA!

Seismic Testing Will Identify Natural Gas

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Seismic testing will soon be conducted in the New Plymouth area as the next step to discovering and extracting natural gas in western Idaho.

Rod McLeod, a geologist from Gulf Coast Permit Services hired by Snake River Oil and Gas, which is currently collecting leases for mineral rights in the area, presented in front of the Payette County Commissioners Tuesday about his plans for testing for natural gas in the area.

In his presentation, McLeod said he plans to use a seismic test to make a “picture” of the Earth’s subsurface.  The test will be used to create a virtual 3D photo of what is underneath to show where natural gas is likely to be.

Read more: Seismic Testing Will Identify Natural Gas

(By Cherise Kaechele, The Argus Observer, Ontario, Oregon)

Hunt is on for More Natural Gas in Idaho

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BOISE – The new owners of natural gas wells in western Idaho plan to spend more and drill more to find more gas in the state.

“This is exciting news for Idaho,” Snake River Oil and Gas President Richard Brown told the Idaho Statesman in a story published Saturday.  “This acquisition of the productive wells and the thousands of associated leased acres means we can expand our oil and gas exploration program, drill more wells, and bring major investments to the region and the state.”

The company is partnering with AM Idaho LLC, a subsidiary of Texas-based Alta Mesa Holdings.

The companies recently purchased the Idaho gas wells from Bridge Resources Corporation and its partner, Paramax Resources Ltd.  Those companies in 2010 produced what appear to be commercially viable natural gas wells after drilling 11 wells in Payette County.

The new owners plan to use advanced technology that allows geologic mapping of the region to find more natural gas. Continue reading →

Corps Approves Dock Expansion

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Next step is for Port of Lewiston officials to decide how to pay for project

A Port of Lewiston project cleared a significant hurdle Monday.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved an application for a $2.9 million expansion of the port’s container dock.

“We have granted permission for them to proceed,” said Bruce Henrickson, a spokesman for the corps’ Walla Walla District.

The corps found the 150-foot addition to the 125-foot dock wouldn’t have a significant impact on the environment, but identified precautions to protect wildlife during construction, according to a news release from the corps. Continue reading →

The Port of Lewiston Minus Megaloads

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Port of Lewiston Resuming Normal Operations

What a difference a year makes.  Last April, I spent a good portion of the month tracking the only Imperial Oil megaload that took U.S. Highway 12.

It was a test module in the same dimension and weight as the largest of the extra-big shipments that Imperial Oil wanted to send along the Clearwater and Lochsa river corridor in Idaho.

That shipment, which is under security around the clock, made it a little past the Montana border and hasn’t moved, said Dave Barbe, general manager of Lolo Hot Springs, a business that’s located near its parking spot. Continue reading →