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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (June 13, 2012)
News Gas continued from page 1 The West Coast switches to a more expen- sive fuel blend in summer to fight pollution but oil analysts have blamed the price spike on the BP refinery outage and maintenance work at several California refineries. Cantwell referenced the BP fire in her let- ter, noting it took a significant amount of refining capacity offline. ``But that shutdown alone should not have resulted in the lowest gasoline inventory levels in history unless other West Coast refiners failed to undertake actions that could have made up for the supply short- ages resulting from the Cherry Point acci- On Monday, the AAA auto club reported the average price of a gallon of gasoline in Washington State was $4.28 — 69 cents higher than the national average dent,’’ she said. ``The reasons why six other West Coast refineries simultaneously reduced operations are not well-document- ed.’’ She asked the commission to use its regu- latory authority to ``ensure that Washington state consumers are not subject to `any manipulative or deceptive device or con- trivance’ that could be resulting in unjustifi- ably high gasoline prices.’’ She also directed the FTC to the McCul- lough Research report, which she said ``questions whether today’s historically low gasoline inventories were really just the inevitable result of the BP refinery fire and unfortunately timed refinery maintenance shutdowns.’’ ``High gasoline prices are contributing to significant economic pain for consumers and businesses in Washington state and are jeopardizing our fragile economic recov- ery,’’ Cantwell concluded. Arena continued from page 1 east while the ``majority of Port of Seattle operations are west of 1st Avenue S — Port of Seattle operations are effectively separat- ed from event traffic.’’ But detractors of the arena proposal say the study overlooks some key factors, including that traffic on event days current- ly housed at Safeco and CenturyLink begins around 3 p.m. and that trucks leaving the port terminals don’t hit the road until about 5 p.m. Also troubling for Dave Gering — execu- Page 4 The Seattle Skanner June 13, 2012 ONLINE — Dave Gering, executive director of Manufacturing Industrial Council of Seattle tive director of Manufacturing Industrial Council of Seattle — is the thought of developing an industrial district into a more retail and entertainment focused area. ``The arena developer has been amazing- ly candid...This is not just about an arena. This is about changing Sodo,’’ Gering said. ``A new land use pattern in Sodo not only is posing a threat to the cargo sector, it will have enormous public costs for the side- walks that aren’t there, the drainage that isn’t there.’’ Developing the area, they argued, would increase speculative value of the land, which may force business owners reliant on cheaper land to leave. theskannermobile.com ‘A new land use pattern in Sodo not only is posing a threat to the cargo sector, it will have enormous public costs for the sidewalks that aren’t there, the drainage that isn’t there’ Scan our QR code with your app. group. The amount of public support would be $200 million if an NBA and NHL fran- chise moved here. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and King County Executive Dow Constantine are backing the plan, saying that bringing the sports franchises would create jobs and as well as the private investment Hansen’s group promises. The traffic study found that events at the arena would not coincide with regular port container terminal operations because most would be in the evening, while one of the main gates at the port wraps up operation around 4:30 p.m. The study also found that event traffic would be on 1st Avenue and roads to the
