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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Courtesy
of The Missoula Independent at:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/put-it-in-park/Content?oid=1293489"><span
style='color:windowtext'>http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/put-it-in-park/Content?oid=1293489</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>With
special thanks to a friend a Vision 2020 subscriber for providing it and
especially to George Ochenski.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;
padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='border:none;padding:0in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Put
it in "Park"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Idaho
judge nixes high and wide loads<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>By
George Ochenski 8-25-10<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Concerned
citizens, business owners and recreationists were dancing in the streets this
week when Idaho District Judge John Bradbury issued a ruling that overturns the
plan to ship oversize loads of oil equipment up narrow, twisting roads through
Idaho and Montana. In what is undoubtedly the first, but not the last,
lawsuit against this hair-brained idea, the scales of justice have tilted, for
once, against the power of the multi-national oil conglomerates.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
plan, by Conoco-Phillips and Exxon-Mobil, would turn Hwy 12, which is a
federally-designated Wild and Scenic Highway, into a permanent industrial
corridor. While it would impact tens of thousands of residents and
visitors, the sole beneficiaries are the profits of the oil companies who seek
to trim transportation costs by shipping the enormous equipment from Korea and
Japan, where it is manufactured, up the Columbia River to the Port of Lewistown.
>From there, it would be loaded onto huge, multi-axle trucks to move the 300-ton
loads up the winding road that follows the Clearwater and Lochsa Rivers up Lolo
Pass and into Montana.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
monster loads would then follow the serpentine road down to Lolo, along the
Bitterroot River to Missoula, and then up the Blackfoot River. Exxon's
equipment would follow the rural two-lanes of the Rocky Mountain Front to
Alberta and the Conoco-Phillips loads would take similar rural roadways to
Laurel's refineries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>While
the plan sparked fierce resistance from those who live, work and recreate on
the river corridors, Idaho's Governor "Butch" Otter and Montana's
Governor Brian Schweitzer earned "Lapdogs of Industry" awards for
cheerleading the project onward, ignoring their own citizenry and lauding the
millions of dollars the proposals would supposedly generate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Both
governors, having already drawn the conclusion that the project was a done
deal, abdicated leadership and left it up to their respective departments of
transportation to mollify the angry citizens. By law, such projects in
Montana require an analysis of potential environmental effects. But
instead of doing a full-blown Environmental Impact Statement, Gov. Schweitzer
assured Montanans that a minimal environmental analysis would suffice since
this was a "one time deal." Idaho, which has no statute
requiring environmental review, simply ignored the very real possibility of the
damages that could occur during the transportation of the huge loads up narrow river
corridors and over treacherous mountain passes and issued Conoco-Phillips a
permit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
comment period for Montana's minimal environmental analysis drew thousands of
responses from all over the state, nation and world. But Jim Lynch, the
director of Montana's Department of Transportation, haughtily announced that
since 6,000 of those responses came as form letters from the Natural Resources
Defense Council, they would be counted as a single comment, further enraging
concerned citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
issue came to a head when three brave Idahoans, Linwood Laughey, his wife Borg
Hendrikson and Peter Grubb, owner of the River Dance Lodge, took the Idaho
Department of Transportation (IDT) to court. In an initial victory, Judge
Bradbury refused to throw the suit out as requested by the state agency and
ordered a hearing on Monday of this week. By late Tuesday afternoon,
Bradbury issued his decision - and it's a doozey.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>In
his intelligent and thoughtful ruling,( available at
http://www.lmtribune.com/filehub/linked/ORDER-Laugh-1282694010.pdf),<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Judge
Bradbury sided with virtually every point contested by the plaintiffs where
public safety, convenience and potential problems were concerned. As for
the Idaho Department of Transportation, well, Bradbury gave them credit for
doing a thorough job of determining the impacts of the heavy loads on highways
and bridges, but slammed the agency because "its failure to address the
'inevitable' accident or breakdown that could shut down Highway 12 for days or
weeks overlooks the quintessential disaster and its effects on the users of
Highway 12 that Emmert [the shipping company] itself forecasts as
possible."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>In
a replay of the recent BP oil catastrophe in the Gulf, the shipping company
acknowledged that the roadway could collapse, equipment could break down or the
loads could wind up falling into the Lochsa River. To retrieve such an
enormous weight from the narrow river valley would require a 500-ton crane,
which needs at least a 45 x 45-foot pad to operate. Not only didn't the
agency have a plan for such contingencies, there are very few areas along the
long route that are wide enough to accommodate such equipment. And
Idaho's own regulations require any such over-size load permits to limit
traffic blockages to 10 minutes or less - a requirement the agency simply
ignored and on which the judge harshly, but correctly, based much of his
opinion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Considering
there's only one road down the river corridor for residents or visitors to use
in the case of medical emergencies, road blockages are not merely
inconveniences, but hold very real life and death consequences. As
plaintiff Borg Hendrikson wrote of her own experience: "Early one morning
about three years ago I went into anaphylactic shock. If my husband
hadn't been able to get me to the Clearwater Valley Emergency Room very
quickly, I could have died. Waiting 15 minutes or more for Exxon-Mobil or
Conoco-Philips to clear their wide loads from the highway, might have been
fatal for me."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"This
is the 'Mouse that Roared,' 'David and Goliath' and 'Avatar' all rolled into
one," said plaintiff Linwood Laughey of the decision, adding:
"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."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>This
stunning court victory should be a wake-up call to both Governor Schweitzer and
the Montana Department of Transportation that these narrow rural roads are wholly
inadequate for use as industrial corridors. Instead of spending tens of
thousands of taxpayer dollars in court battles to defend the profit-driven
demands of multi-national oil conglomerates, Schweitzer and MDOT should do the
right thing to protect Montanans and their environment and summarily deny the
permits.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;
padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>
<p class=MsoNormal style='border:none;padding:0in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Seeya
round town, Moscow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Tom
Hansen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Moscow,
Idaho<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“It's
not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but
what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that
makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us
integrity.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>-</span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> Francis Bacon, Sr.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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