[Vision2020] Oil Company Says It Won’t Ship Big Loads All Decade

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (October 15, 2010) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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Oil co. says it won’t ship big loads all decade
Denial contrary to report from National Resources Defense Council

SPOKANE – An oil company is denying an environmental group’s  report that
says huge loads of refinery equipment will be shipped over scenic U.S. 12
in the Rocky Mountains for the next decade.

The National Resources Defense Council issued a report Thursday contending
that documents it translated from South Korea show that Imperial Oil, a
unit of Exxon Mobil Corp., and its Korean equipment supplier, Sung Jin
Geotec Co., plan to use the remote two-lane highway to move equipment
until 2020.

Imperial Oil spokesman Pius Rolheiser said the company has no plans to use
the road beyond the 207 shipments it is seeking permission for in the next
year.

“I know that Sung Gin Geotec has made statements in news releases and
other investor communications that may allude to potential future work
with Imperial,” Rollheiser said Thursday.  “I can state on Imperial’s
behalf that we have no commitments to Sung Jin beyond the current
contract.

Asked if Imperial Oil might make future agreements with Sung Jin,
Rolheiser said the question was speculative and he declined to speculate.

Environmental groups have been trying to prevent the shipments for months,
contending they will turn the spectacular mountain highway into a
permanent industrial highway.

“We believe the evidence is clear Exxon plans to be shipping oversized
modules through the Pacific Northwest for quite some time,” said Bobby
McEnaney, of the NRDC in Washington, D.C.

The NRDC said it gathered and translated Korean business documents, Korean
press reports and SJG press releases in order to produce its conclusion
that the shipments could be far more numerous and last until 2020.  The
group shared the documents with The Associated Press, although their
documents could not immediately be independently verified.

U.S. 12 in Idaho is variously designated as the Northwest Passage Scenic
Byway, the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail or the Nez Perce
National Historic Trail.  For 100 miles it tightly borders the Lochsa and
Clearwater, both designated Wild and Scenic rivers.

The Imperial Oil equipment is destined to pass through Idaho and Montana
to reach the controversial Kearl Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada.  The 207
modules will be assembled into equipment to convert the oil sands into
oil, a process denounced by opponents as environmentally destructive.

The first load of modules has been shipped from South Korea, up the
Columbia and Snake rivers, and arrived at the Port of Lewiston in Idaho. 
The modules, nearly 200 feet long and 30 feet tall, are so huge they must
be loaded onto trailers that take up both lanes of U.S. 12, resulting in a
rolling roadblock as they move.

But the equipment can go no further.  In a lawsuit involving four pieces
of similarly sized equipment destined for a ConocoPhillips refinery in
Billings, Mont., the Idaho Supreme Court is deciding if the issuance of a
state permit will imperil the safety of residents along the highway and
also the economy of the region.  Officials in Montana have also not issued
permits.

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If it walks and quacks like a duck . . .

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown