Idaho Transportation Department Documents Megaload Bills

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One of many Imperial Oil megaloads sits at the Port of Lewiston last summer (The Lewiston Tribune/Barry Kough photo).

Idaho has spent nearly $200,000, but more than half will be reimbursed

The Idaho Transportation Department has disclosed $190,012 in expenses related to megaloads during 2011, a year where 79 of the shipments traveled on U.S. highways 12 and 95.

More than half the total expenditures, or $107,490, was for snow and ice removal and is being reimbursed by the companies that hired the megaload trucking firms, according to an email from ITD spokesman Adam Rush.

The companies hauling the oversized loads also paid $27,158 for permits.

The first of four ConocoPhillips megaloads dwarfs a large highway sign, as it snakes its way east on the frontage road along U.S. Highway 12 in North Lewiston last year (The Lewiston Tribune/Kyle Mills photo).

But it’s not clear how many resources the agency has used monitoring the megaloads, processing paperwork, examining roads, and inspecting bridges.

ITD indicated it was impossible to segregate expenses in at least two key areas. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Aaron Malgren 1-23-12

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Starting on Monday, January 23, between 7:30 and 9:00 pm PST, Wild Idaho Rising Tide is hosting a 1 1/2 hour radio show entitled Climate Justice Forum, aired at 92.5 FM and audio-streamed by KRFP Radio Free Moscow.  On our inaugural broadcast, we will host Aaron Malgren, one of two cyclists arrested during the critical mass Bikes, Not Bitumen! protest against Imperial Oil tar sands transports through Moscow on October 6.

In every one of our programs sandwiched between Flashpoints and Occupy Wall Street, we plan to intersperse our regional and national dirty energy news and interviews with activists and academics with coverage of the work of our fellow Rising Tide colleagues across the country.  Besides announcing direct actions and educational events that people in the Northern Rockies/Northwest could attend, we would greatly appreciate talking with each of you by phone on the air about your admirable initiatives and successes in confronting climate change challenges.  Please contact us soon to arrange a Monday evening conversation!  If we do not hear from you, expect an invitation soon…

Time Running Out for Kearl Module Deliveries

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Imperial Oil photo of a truck hauling a prefabricated module used in the construction of the Kearl tar sands plant

Imperial counting on April arrival of stalled equipment

CALGARY — Imperial Oil says getting its $10.9-billion Kearl oilsands mining project started by the end of 2012 as scheduled depends on delivery in the next three months of 85 modules delayed in the United States.

On a webcast from a conference in Whistler, B.C., Imperial president and chief executive Bruce March said Thursday he’s optimistic the project will start on time.

“The Kearl initial development is now about 87 per cent complete and we continue to be on track for a start-up in late 2012,” he said.

Read more: Time Running Out for Kearl Module Deliveries

(By Dan Healing, Calgary Herald)

Four More Months of Megaloads

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Megaloads are currently held in a Wallace parking lot, and recent snowy weather will impact how quickly they can be transported from the Silver Valley (Shoshone News Press/Kelsey Saintz photo).

WALLACE — Megaloads will rest in a parking lot across from the Wallace visitors’ center for about four more months, depending on weather, said Mayor Dick Vester.

“It’s a welcome, positive economic impact across the valley,” he said, because drivers and crews are having to stay and utilize local resources. “That’s been a help to some of the businesses, restaurants, and hotels.”

During a special city council meeting December 1, members unanimously gave Vester the authority to enter into a contract with Mammoet Canada Western, a company specializing in heavy lifting and transport, to use the space for megaload parking and maintenance. Continue reading →

Port of Lewiston’s Helmsman Navigates Busy Waters

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The Port of Lewiston has been the site of much activity this year as crews worked to reduce the size of the extra-large shipments dubbed "megaloads" (The Lewiston Tribune/Steve Hanks photo).

While shipping is one of the most visible of the Port of Lewiston’s functions, its manager says it’s only one method to achieve the primary mission of job creation.

The subject of this month’s Business Profile doesn’t own a business. In fact, if you live in Nez Perce County, you are his boss.

As general manager of the Port of Lewiston, David Doeringsfeld is responsible not just for the shipment of cargo in and out of Lewiston, but for “enhancing the economic environment of Nez Perce County.”

His job is to help create more jobs. Or, as he put it, “It’s not just about barges.” Continue reading →

More Megaloads Possible for Inland NW Roads

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LEWISTON — Imperial Oil approved an expansion for its processing plant under construction in the Kearl Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada.

The move raises the possibility of additional megaloads on north central Idaho’s roads, even though many of the details of the project are still being hammered out.

About 200 of the 1,200 components needed for the processing plant, scheduled to be completed this year, are being manufactured in Korea, said Pius Rolheiser, a spokesman for Imperial Oil. Continue reading →

Heavy Haul to Climate Hell

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At 935,000 combined pounds, the three Alberta tar sands transports scheduled to damage Highway 95 and Moscow streets on Thursday, January 12, build the heaviest Imperial Oil convoy ever.  If the vestiges of a cool climate and winter weather do not scuttle another reinforcing trip to the world’s biggest (232-square-mile) mine, three 24-feet wide, 15-feet high shipments respectively weighing 135,000, 375,000, and 425,000 pounds and measuring 110, 195, and 215 feet long could leave the Port of Lewiston after 8 pm.  All of the transports will travel separately except through Moscow, as the smaller module on a conventional trailer moves toward Lookout Pass and the two megaloads on hydraulic trailers lumber toward a parking/staging area near Worley.  Idaho state troopers, pilot vehicle drivers, flaggers, and Moscow city police, all paid by the hauler Mammoet, will guard and escort this tar sands equipment instead of the citizen safety, access, and convenience we should all demand on our own roads. Continue reading →

Megaload Countdown: Protest & Monitor!

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[Update: Last night, on Tuesday, January 10, Imperial Oil and its hauler Mammoet moved only one of its three tar sands modules up Highway 95, admitting that “two shipments were not able to leave the Port of Lewiston.” Moscow police informed protesters of this postponement after the first load traversed our city streets.  Tonight, Big Oil plans to pummel Idaho roads with the heaviest megaload yet, a 425,000-pound, 215-feet-long climate killer, and with a 60,000-pound, two-lane (24-feet) wide, rolling roadblock.  Please do your part to monitor and protest this deadly procession on Wednesday, January 11, or forever regret your complicity in global devastation.  Join Moscow activists and Wild Idaho Rising Tide members who will supply protest signs, banners, and chants and monitoring partners and guidance.  Bring your friends, family, outrage, strong voice, and recording equipment.  Monitors are meeting near Moscow City Hall, at the corner of Second and Washington streets, at 7:30 pm and after the demonstration.  Protesters are converging at the same location between 9:30 and 10 pm.  Please see the prior announcement for further information and check the ExxonMobil website at http://www.kearltransport.com/ for other last-minute, purportedly weather-induced changes.] Continue reading →

Rescind Mega-Invitation

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Diana Armstrong, Moscow

The Lewiston Tribune 1/4/11

It’s a new year; everyone makes resolutions. I wonder what the Moscow City Council is doing about the Sustainable Environment Commission’s recommendations regarding the motion the council passed in May inviting the megaloads to Moscow. The commission has asked the council to rescind that statement and issue another.

That statement said the city council believed the movement of the megaloads through Moscow would not have “any inordinate impact on the infrastructure and community.” Depends on how you define “inordinate,” but there were disruptions, costs, and accidents. Continue reading →

Heavy New Year!

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On Wednesday, January 4, in defiance of reason and the public will and in devious resolve to plunder our meager state infrastructure, freshwater ecosystems, and the rapidly fading viability of life under carbon-packed skies, ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil is moving the most massive combined weight of megaloads to ever crush Idaho roads and bridges (and you are the lucky taxpayer who finances its damages AND subsidizes its profits!).  As harbingers of the excessive industrial forces that we have allowed to increasingly proliferate around our planet, the three modules passing through the Palouse toward Alberta tar sands mining operations will respectively (but not respectfully) weigh 200,000, 330,000, and 375,000 pounds and will crowd curves with their 90, 175, and 200 foot lengths and 15 foot heights.  If you have not yet observed or raged against these colossal machines, Highway 95 and Moscow streets are now calling your name! Continue reading →