<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of the East Oregonian (subscription required) at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://www.eastoregonian.com/news/local_news/protesters-show-up-megaload-doesn-t-budge/article_fc0702d4-559f-11e3-a069-001a4bcf887a.html?success=2">http://www.eastoregonian.com/news/local_news/protesters-show-up-megaload-doesn-t-budge/article_fc0702d4-559f-11e3-a069-001a4bcf887a.html?success=2</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="paragraph-0" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h1 id="blox-asset-title" style="font-size: 30px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Crimson Text', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 34px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="blox-headline entry-title" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 38px;">Protesters show up, megaload doesn't budge</span></h1><div><span class="blox-headline entry-title" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 38px;"> </span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As promised, about 20 protesters gathered on a toe-numbing Sunday night and waited for the first of three “megaloads” to leave the Port of Umatilla hauling massive refinery equipment into the oil sands of Alberta, Canada.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div></span><span class="paragraph-1" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px;">Yet the shipment never budged, sitting under towering floodlights while workers with the Hillsboro-based Omega Morgan continued to prepare the oversized transport for its first leg south through Hermiston and east into Pendleton.</p></span></span><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Climate activists oppose providing a route on Oregon highways for a vessel they said will contribute to increased carbon dioxide emissions and global warming. Jim Powers, of Albany, also said the Oregon Department of Transportation rushed to permit the project without enough public process.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“A lot of people at least wanted the chance to review the plan and check it for safety,” Powers said. “Nobody else got to look at it.”</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With only three days to organize, Powers said he was pleased to have as many people as possible make the trip — including some from Idaho and Washington state. Signs in hand, they chanted into the night and took shifts watching for when the 380-foot-long, 23-foot-wide trucking behemoth would hit the road.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As of late Sunday, the megaload had not left the port. ODOT regional spokesman Tom Strandberg previously said it would begin moving either Sunday or Monday night.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The load is only permitted to travel between 8 p.m. — 6 a.m., and no more than eight consecutive hours per night. It will eventually reach the John Day Valley before crossing east into southern Idaho and north through Montana en route to Canada.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But the megaload is a symbol of a much bigger problem, Powers said, as more fossil fuels are burned from the oil sands.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It definitely makes me sad there isn’t more publicity about the problem,” Powers said. “My children and grandchildren will be greatly harmed by this machine.”</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Drivers can expect delays up to 20 minutes once the slow-moving megaload leaves Umatilla. Traffic impact information will be updated online at <a href="http://www.tripcheck.com/" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">www.tripcheck.com</a>.</span></p></div></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------<br><br><div>Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">There's room at the top they are telling you still</span><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> </span></div><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill </span><br style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">- John Lennon<br></span></font><div> </div></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></body></html>