[Vision2020] Bill Targets Megaload Opposition

[Tom Hansen]

Let me see if I have this right . . .

Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) is not required to conduct public
hearings concerning loads in excess of 200,000 pounds being transported on
Idaho public roadways.  However, if anybody files a complaint about such
loads, it could cost the complainant potentially hundreds of thousands of
dollars, with the proceeds being awarded to the hauler.

Welcome to Idaho.  Esto perpetua.

Courtesy of today's (February 24, 2011) Spokesman-Review.

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Bill targets megaload opposition
Bond would be required to file suit against project

BOISE – St. Maries Rep. Dick Harwood introduced legislation Wednesday
designed to impose huge bonding requirements on anyone who sues to block a
megaload – or anything else – from traveling on Idaho’s highways.

Harwood’s bill, which the House State Affairs Committee agreed to
introduce on a divided vote, would require anyone who files a lawsuit
against a transportation project on state highways to post a bond equal to
5 percent of the value of the items being hauled, and if the plaintiffs
lose the lawsuit, the whole bond would go to the Idaho Transportation
Department. For megaloads, that potentially could be tens or hundreds of
thousands of dollars. Plus, the bill would authorize the court to award
damages to the hauler in the amount of its loss for delays related to the
lawsuit.

“This has been brought because of the megaloads,” Harwood told the
committee. “Any time an individual group can stop our commerce from
flowing, it’s not a good thing, and that’s what happened.”

State Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise, an attorney, raised questions about
Harwood’s bill, saying, “It looks like they’re paying twice,” between the
bond and the damages to the hauler. Luker said if the bond is excessive,
the plaintiff should get amounts back beyond the department’s costs
associated with the project, but said, “the bill doesn’t say that.”

State Rep. Max Black, R-Boise, said, “I think that that’s totally
justifiable because they really did put the Department of Transportation
into a lot of extra hearings and transportation costs, going to North
Idaho for the hearings and whatever else. Ultimately, they won, but
without this, there was no reimbursement for their extra expenses.”

State Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, who said he supports the
megaloads, voted against introducing Harwood’s bill. “I don’t think he had
any answers for any questions that were given to him – I think he needs to
refine it,” Anderson said. “I can’t even tell you what the bill says right
now, for reading it.”

Harwood compared his proposal to bonds required for lawsuits over state
timber sales, and said those bond requirements “pretty much ended any
lawsuits on the Department of Lands.”

Meanwhile, megaloads opponents on Wednesday filed a petition asking ITD to
reconsider its initial approval of 207 megaloads that ExxonMobil/Imperial
Oil plan to send across Highway 12 now that the company has begun
modifying many of the loads to allow them to be trucked to Alberta via the
interstate system instead.

Highway 12 resident Borg Hendrickson said, “Throughout 2010,
Exxon/Imperial repeatedly told Idahoans that no alternative route existed
for these massive loads, but now 60 of them are being shipped from
Vancouver via an alternative route and 30 more are also going to be
shipped via an alternative route,” after modifications as they sit in
Lewiston. “ITD’s decision needs to be based on real facts, and our
petition, in effect, asks ITD to step back and get those facts.”

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"This is the 'Mouse that Roared,' 'David and Goliath' and 'Avatar' all
rolled into one.  We must remember that the thousands of citizens involved
in this effort to protect their personal and family safety, their
businesses and their lifestyles are confronting some of the largest
international corporations in the world."

- Linwood Laughy