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<p class=MsoNormal>Courtesy of today’s (August 14, 2010)
Spokesman-Review.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Wide, wide loads opposed<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Huge oil equipment to move along scenic Idaho highway<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Betsy Z. Russell, The Spokesman-Review<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>A scenic Idaho river canyon dotted with campgrounds, hiking
trails and historic sites could become the thoroughfare for hundreds of mammoth
truck shipments of Korean-built equipment for the Alberta oil sands project in
Canada – a prospect that’s raising an outcry from residents,
recreationists and tourist businesses along the route.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>But the project’s biggest booster is Idaho Gov. Butch
Otter, who welcomed it long before locals heard about it. Otter says
it’ll be done right, but critics aren’t convinced and are concerned
about Otter’s handling of the issue.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>“People are passionate about this – they are
really, really upset,” said Linwood Laughy, a retired educator and author
who has lived in the Clearwater/Lochsa river canyon since 1965, and first came
to Lewiston in 1948. “There’s a definite sense of betrayal, that
these folks are working for the oil companies and not for the citizens.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Laughy’s home is right on Highway 12, where the truck
shipments are proposed to go. The route was designated as an Idaho scenic byway
in 1989, and a national “all-American road” dubbed the
“Northwest Passage Scenic Byway” in 2005. It follows roughly the
route that explorers Lewis and Clark took as they sought a passage to the
Pacific, and passes through the reservation of the Nez Perce Tribe, which is opposing
the shipments.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>“This is truly a special place down here,” said
Laughy, who added, “tourism is a pretty significant element of our
economy in north-central Idaho – it’s the only growing
industry.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>The trucks are so huge that they’ll take up both lanes
of the two-lane highway; running at night, they’ll pull over every 15
minutes to let other traffic pass, which otherwise will be blocked. The
shipments would run for a year.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Among those who’ve come out against the 200-plus
truckloads, which will take four days each to travel the 175-mile route from
Lewiston to Lolo Pass on the Montana border, are conservation groups, local
business owners, river rafters, fishermen, hiking enthusiasts and history buffs.
Among those in favor: boosters of the Port of Lewiston, which will receive the
shipments by barge and then send them on by truck.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>In January 2009, Otter wrote a letter to the Port of
Lewiston’s commissioners saying he was “honored” to
“take this opportunity to encourage Imperial Oil and ExxonMobil to
utilize the Port of Lewiston.” Otter wrote, “I pledge our support
and cooperation to enhance the development of this important new business
opportunity,” which he also dubbed an “exciting project.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Laughy said he and his neighbors didn’t hear about the
plans until April of this year – and the first they heard was that it was
a “done deal.” However, neither Idaho nor Montana has yet issued
permits for the oversize loads; in June, ITD held three public meetings about
them in Lewiston, Moscow and Kooskia.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Keith Allred, the Democrat who’s challenging Otter in
the November election, said: “This is typical of the pattern we’ve
seen with Gov. Otter: He listens to a very narrow set of political supporters
who have a vested interest in the question at hand, takes their word for it and
marches out a policy proposal. And then we find out that the people that Otter
didn’t consult with have very good objections, and it turns out to be
problematic.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Among concerns area residents are raising are how someone
headed to the emergency room will get through when the big loads are taking up
the whole road; what will happen if there’s an accident and a load goes
into the river; and how the nighttime transports will impact tourism, with
campgrounds and motels just yards from the highway.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Pius Rolheiser, spokesman for Alberta-based Imperial Oil,
which is partly owned by ExxonMobil, said the company has planned carefully for
all those issues. “Our goal is to carry out this project safely,
efficiently and with a minimum of impact,” he said. “They’re
no noisier, no louder than a standard semi-trailer transport, of which there
are many on Highway 12.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>In fact, tourist brochures about the river canyon warn about
logging trucks and other commercial vehicles, and the Idaho Transportation
Department says it has issued an average three to four permits for oversize
vehicles a year on the route for the last 10 years, mostly for farm equipment,
boats, wind turbine blades and the like. But ITD spokesman Jeff Stratten said,
“We never had a request for anywhere near this volume.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>The trucks could weigh up to 337 tons, and be up to 29 feet
wide, 27 feet high and 227 feet long – about three times the length of a
typical 18-wheeler.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil plans to move 207 of the high and
wide loads, starting in November. At the same time, ConocoPhillips has applied
to move four loads just as big across the same route to Billings starting this
month.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Petitions against both applications with more than 1,700
signatures have been delivered to Otter, and ITD has received hundreds of
letters and e-mails about the plans, including a legal protest. Stratten said
all the concerns are being analyzed and responses to them will be posted on the
Internet in late August – but the ConocoPhillips loads are likely to be
approved and start moving before then.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil already has spent $440,000 to
improve nine turnouts along U.S. Highway 12, Stratten said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Rolheiser said, “We’re doing this work with no
guarantee and no certainty.” But he said, “We have confidence in
the process.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Residents say their biggest fear is that the project will
turn the route into a permanent high-and-wide commercial trucking corridor, to
the detriment of all other uses. Rolheiser said that’s not Imperial
Oil’s plan: “We have no designs on use of this route beyond this
project.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>The outcry’s been even greater in Montana, where the
route the big loads will take to Canada rolls right through Missoula; there,
the state Transportation Department has been deluged with thousands of
objections.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>--------------------<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>The project’s trucks will occupy both lanes of U.S.
Highway 12 in the Clearwater/Lochsa canyon.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2010/08/14/14_HIGHWAY_12_t620.jpg">http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2010/08/14/14_HIGHWAY_12_t620.jpg</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>--------------------<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Equipment bound for a ConocoPhillips refinery in Billings is
handled by workmen at the Port of Lewiston on Sunday.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2010/08/13/Refinery_Move_Russ_t620.jpg">http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2010/08/13/Refinery_Move_Russ_t620.jpg</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Seeya at Farmers Market, Moscow.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Tom Hansen<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Moscow, Idaho<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"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." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>- John
Oliver, The Daily Show<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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