[Vision2020] Idaho Residents File Lawsuit in Attempt to Halt Big Loads on U.S. 12

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

 

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Idaho residents file lawsuit in attempt to halt big loads on U.S. 12

August 16, 2010, 3:05 pm

 

Three Idaho residents are asking a state judge to block the first wave of
oversized shipments of oil equipment planned along scenic U.S. Highway 12 in
northern Idaho.

 

The lawsuit filed Monday seeks a temporary restraining order barring
ConocoPhillips from hauling big equipment from Lewiston to Billings, Mont.,
starting as early as Wednesday. The loads would be the first of more than
200 planned over the next year, although only four are scheduled to make the
trip to Billings. The two massive ConocoPhillips oil drums are at the Port
of Lewiston awaiting shipment, and will be transported in halves. Each of
the four loads bound for Billings is 25-feet in diameter and weighs more
than 187 tons. 

 

Imperial Oil, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp., also wants to haul heavy
equipment from Lewiston to the Kearl Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada. Some of
those loads would weigh as much as 290 tons and stretch as long as 210 feet,
as wide as 24 feet and as high as 30 feet.

 

Opposition to the plan has been building for months.

 

The lawsuit claims the ConocoPhillips shipments would threaten public
safety, damage tourism and pose a risk to the pristine river corridor. 

 

The litigation was filed in Idaho County by Karen (Borg) Hendrickson,
Linwood Laughy and Peter Grubb, all of whom are owners of businesses that
depend on tourism, Hendrickson said. 

 

Hendrickson and Laughy, who are married, own Mountain Meadow Press and Lewis
Clark Idaho Road Tours plus Cedar Creek Creations, in which one of their
daughters and son-in-law are partial owners. 

 

Grubb is the founder of ROW Adventures, which runs rafting trips on the
Lochsa River. He also operates businesses with lodging and a restaurant
along Highway 12 about 90 miles east of Lewiston. 

 

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A copy of the lawsuit is forthcoming . . .

 

Stay tuned, V-peeps.

 

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

 

"Corporations are an oppressed minority forced to move headquarters from
state to state in search of friendlier tax codes--sometimes being forced to
live just off our shores in tiny mailboxes." 

 

- John Oliver, The Daily Show

 

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