The Last Thing Megaloaders Need is a Subsidy

Posted on February 4, 2012 by WIRT

Marty Trillhaase, Editorial Page Editor, Lewiston

The Lewiston Tribune 2/4/12

Last year, more than 70 megaloads traveled across north central Idaho highways — often with an unofficial subsidy courtesy of the Idaho taxpayer and motorist.

Among them were 10 shipments along U.S. Highway 12, including four from ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil’s experimental module. At one time, ExxonMobil spoke about running 200 of these rolling roadblocks up U.S. 12 en route to the Alberta tar sands project.

At the same time, ExxonMobil reconfigured megaloads parked at the Port of Lewiston for interstate highway travel and moved 64 of them up U.S. Highway 95.

Each of them paid an over-legal permit fee to the Idaho Transportation Department. ConocoPhillips was charged an average of $2,210 per trip. ExxonMobil’s transports paid, on average, $175. The companies also reimbursed what Idaho spent clearing the highways of snow and for extra law enforcement.

But from the time the megaload plans appeared on the scene, it was obvious the state wasn’t charging enough. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Amanda Buchanan & Kai Huschke 2-6-11

Posted on February 4, 2012 by WIRT

Listen to Wild Idaho Rising Tide’s Climate Justice Forum on Monday night, February 6, between 7:30 and 9 pm PST on KRFP Radio Free Moscow. Washington County anti-fracking activist Amanda Buchanan and Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund organizer Kai Huschke will update us on developments in state and county oil and natural gas rules, bills, and ordinances. Joann Muneta will discuss Moscow Farmers Market tabling changes, and show host Helen Yost will address the costs of Idaho megaloads and upcoming Moscow protests and fracking documentaries, forums, and petitions.

Idaho Transportation Department: Sharing the Roads with Megafreeloaders

Posted on February 1, 2012 by WIRT

The Idaho Statesman Editorial Board, Boise

The Idaho Statesman 2/1/12

When it comes to the oversized truck shipments known as “megaloads,” everything is big. The size and weight, the controversy, the inconvenience to motorists stuck on the highway at the wrong time — and now, even the taxpayer subsidy.

The Idaho Transportation Department is supposed to recoup costs associated with the megaloads. But according to ITD, proceeds from shipping permits are falling some $645,000 short of covering annual costs.

How’s that for running government like a business?

(Link provided by Borg Hendrickson)

The Dirty Dance: Export Plan Puts North Idaho in the Middle of a New Coal Rush

Posted on February 1, 2012 by WIRT

Plans to bring coal trains across the Northwest raise big questions

There’s a stretch of road on Highway 200, as it nears the Idaho-Montana line in rural North Idaho, where the biggest traffic hazard is tourists parked on the side of the shoulder snapping pictures.

It’s there that the narrow ribbon of asphalt climbs from the muddy flats of the Pack River Delta and winds its way up onto the toes of the Cabinet Mountains. From that vantage point the huge southern sweep of Lake Pend Oreille can be seen, and the view can be just as distracting as the idling roadside motorists.

Like most scenic vistas, almost everybody’s pictures look the same, and it’s a safe bet that any panoramic shot taken down Pend Oreille’s northeastern shoreline will not only include water, trees, and islands but a freight train chugging down the tracks that run along the water’s edge.

Trains are so much a part of the scenery that they go unnoticed. While Highway 200 sees a steady stream of cars and trucks traveling to and from nearby Montana, it runs parallel with one of the Northwest’s busiest rail lines. And through a confluence of much larger global forces — including Warren Buffett, economic growth in Asia, and coal mined in Montana and Wyoming — those vacation snapshots could come to include a whole lot more trains.

Not everybody thinks the result will be too picturesque.

(By Zach Hagadone, Boise Weekly)

Idaho Counties, Gas Drillers Reach Agreement on Legislation

Posted on January 29, 2012 by WIRT

A group representing Idaho counties and a group representing companies interested in tapping natural gas in the state announced an agreement on Sunday on legislation they plan to introduce into the Idaho Legislature next month, the Associated Press reports. The Idaho Association of Counties and the Idaho Petroleum Council said the guidelines will allow counties some control over natural gas development, while natural gas wildcatters will have a clearer path to tapping fields; but a conservation group said the agreement appears to reduce local control over industries by allowing state lawmakers to create rules that counties and cities wouldn’t be able to exceed with their own ordinances. Click Gas Drillers, Idaho Counties Reach Agreement for the full story from Associated Press reporter Keith Ridler.

(By Betsy Russell, Eye on Boise, The Spokesman-Review)

Canadian Oil Pipeline Would Be Path to China

Posted on January 29, 2012 by WIRT

National Energy Board panelists, back row, stand with Haisla First Nation Hereditary Chiefs during the opening day of hearings for the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project in Kitamaat Village, British Columbia, on January 10. Several hundred people gathered for hearings on whether a pipeline should be laid from the Alberta tar sands to the Pacific Ocean (Associated Press photo).

Alternate route hits familiar obstacles

KITAMAAT VILLAGE, B.C. – The latest chapter in Canada’s quest to become a full-blown oil superpower unfolded this month in a village gym on the British Columbia coast.

Here, several hundred people gathered for hearings on whether a pipeline should be laid from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific in order to deliver oil to Asia, chiefly energy-hungry China. The stakes are particularly high for the village of Kitamaat, south of Kitimat, because the pipeline would terminate here and a port would be built to handle 220 tankers a year and 525,000 barrels of oil a day.

But the planned Northern Gateway Pipeline is just one aspect of an epic battle over Canada’s oil ambitions – a battle that already has a supporting role in the U.S. presidential election, and which will help to shape North America’s future energy relationship with China.

(By Rob Gillies, Associated Press, The Spokesman-Review)

(Link provided by Tom Hansen)

Climate Justice Forum: Jo Bohna & Lin Laughy 1-30-12

Posted on January 28, 2012 by WIRT

Listen to the audio-streamed Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) radio show Climate Justice Forum on Mondays between 7:30 and 9:00 pm PST. Tonight’s program on January 30 includes conversations with regional megaload protesters Jo Bohna and Linwood Laughy and updates on Idaho fracking rules, laws, and the Idaho Fracking Forum in Moscow. Support this listener-sponsored, progressive broadcast by contributing to KRFP Radio Free Moscow as you adopt WIRT as a DJ for only ten dollars per month!

Hundreds Turn Out to Launch Bellingham Anti-Coal Train Initiative

Posted on January 26, 2012 by WIRT

BELLINGHAM – With a musical kickoff from bandZandt singing “No Coal Trains,” local activists launched their “Coal-Free Bellingham” campaign for a citizen initiative to outlaw coal trains through a city ordinance.

Stoney Bird, a retired corporate attorney who is one of the key organizers, said it may be a week or two before signature-gatherers hit the streets. The language for the ballot title needs to be worked out with the City Attorney’s office. But judging from the Thursday, January 26, turnout of 200 or more enthusiastic supporters, the signature-gathering process won’t lack for volunteers.

(By John Stark, The Bellingham Herald)

ITD Losing Half a Million-Plus a Year on Oversized Load Permit Program

Posted on January 24, 2012 by WIRT

Idaho has been losing $645,000 a year administering oversize-load permits including those for so-called megaloads, Lewiston Tribune reporter Bill Spence reported today; the news came out when an ITD official briefed a legislative committee on pending ITD rules, which include fee increases designed to try to wipe out that deficit. “We’re required to recoup the administrative cost of running the program,” ITD official Regina Phipps told the Senate Transportation Committee; you can read Spence’s full post of ITD Loses $645,000 Annually on Oversize Load Permits at his “Political Theater” blog.

(By Betsy Russell, Eye on Boise, The Spokesman-Review)

As Megaloads Ebb, Tar Sands Flow

Posted on January 23, 2012 by WIRT

[Update: Adverse weather conditions caused ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil and its hauler Mammoet to postpone the two shipments scheduled to leave the Port of Lewiston on Tuesday, January 24. If the climate that they disrupt does not again (hopefully) impede their movement, an 80,000-pound and 240,000-pound megaload will travel north on Highway 95 after 8 pm on Wednesday, January 25. Please see the following, revised, previously posted action alert and join Wild Idaho Rising Tide activists in monitoring and protesting these Alberta tar sands processing modules.] Continue reading →

Marty Trillhaase, Editorial Page Editor, Lewiston

The Lewiston Tribune 2/4/12

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The Idaho Statesman Editorial Board, Boise

The Idaho Statesman 2/1/12

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Plans to bring coal trains across the Northwest raise big questions

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