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Wednesday, July 5, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Oil train legislation sent back to committee
By Gillian Flaccus
Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)
— State lawmakers sent a
proposed oil train safety bill
back for more work Friday
after growing concerns that
an amendment favoring the
railroad industry had watered
down key provisions on pub-
lic oversight and financial
accountability.
The Oregon House was
prepared to vote on House
Bill 2131, but Rep. Barbara
Smith Warner, a Democrat
from Portland, made a sur-
prise motion to send the pro-
posed legislation back to the
Joint Ways and Means com-
mittee for changes. The move
came after environmental
groups and residents of the
Columbia River Gorge raised
concerns about an amend-
ment they felt neutered the
state’s ability to police the
railroads that run oil trains
through communities.
The bill was crafted at the
start of the legislative session
to address safety concerns
after an oil train derailment
near the small Columbia
River Gorge town of Mosier
sparked a fire near an elemen-
tary school that took hours
to put out. Oil trains run
continuously along tracks that
parallel the Columbia River
and pass through Mosier and
other small communities.
The bill was amended in
May. Critics said the changes
compromised transparency
and public safety for the ben-
efit of the rail industry.
I am disheartened that we
would send this bill back.”
—Rep. Mark Johnson
“Our intention was not
to hide oil train safety plans
from the public,” Smith
Warner said before the vote
on the motion. “This has been
a complicated path, a long
negotiation, and despite that
there are times when the need
for good policy overrides the
need for consensus.”
The railroad industry says
making information about oil
train routes and plans for a
potential spill public would
endanger national security by
identifying where the easily
identifiable, mile-long trains
move. Smith Warner said
Friday that the proposed bill
had been crafted in a way that
would help it survive legal
challenges.
Justin Jacobs, a regional
spokesman for Union Pacific
Railroad, did not immediately
return a call for comment.
Environmentalists had
been vocal in their criticism
of the amendments, which
made the railroads’ safety
plans secret from the public.
The original bill would
have allowed the public
to read the plans; required
railroads to pay a fee for
oil response planning and
required financial disclosures
to prove railroads could pay
for any accident cleanup, said
Michael Lang, conservation
director for Friends of the
Columbia Gorge.
Oregon currently has the
weakest laws on the West
Coast around oil train safety
and accident response plan-
ning, Lang said.
In Washington, railroads
must provide extensive details
on how they will respond to
spills large and small: who
will be involved; how first
responders will be notified;
where containment equip-
ment is stored; how the public
will be protected; and how air
pollution from the vapors or
burning oil will be monitored.
The public can read and com-
ment on the plans.
In California, a federal
judge in 2015 dismissed
a challenge to a state law
requiring that railroads and
other entities that transport oil
across the state prepare com-
prehensive oil spill response
plans and demonstrate finan-
cial responsibility to clean up
a worst-case oil spill.
“These laws in California
and Washington passed,
they’re implemented and
they’ve withstood judicial
challenges and scrutiny,”
Lang said.
Not all lawmakers were
pleased with Smith Warner’s
decision to pull the bill at the
last minute.
Rep. Mark Johnson,
a Republican from the
Columbia Gorge town of
Hood River, blamed inflam-
matory coverage in the media
for Smith Warner’s change of
heart and said sending it back
to committee would jeopar-
dize lawmakers’ ability to get
any oil train safety legislation
passed. Oregon’s legislative
session ends in the next two
weeks.
“My fear if this bill goes
back to committee, it has
a very uncertain pathway
through this legislature,” he
said. “I am disheartened that
we would send this bill back.”
Alaska Air
offers charter
flight for
solar eclipse
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)
— Alaska Airlines is offer-
ing a charter flight over the
Pacific Ocean this Aug. 21
that will allow select passen-
gers to view the astronomical
event from the sky.
The company said
Monday that the flight will
take off at 7:30 a.m. Pacific
from Portland, Oregon and is
by invitation-only for astron-
omers and serious eclipse
chasers.
The total solar eclipse is
the first coast-to-coast total
solar eclipse to hit the conti-
nental U.S. in 99 years.
A total eclipse occurs when
the moon passes between the
sun and the Earth.
The path of totality — the
area of complete darkness
where the moon’s shadow
completely obscures the sun
— begins in the U.S. on the
Oregon coast before traveling
east.
Alaska is also holding a
contest to give away tickets to
one person and a guest.
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