While the Pacific Northwest and the rest of the world is wracked by the COVID-19 pandemic, another kind of pandemic threatens our region - an increasing number of oil trains, each loaded with 3 million gallons of crude oil, traveling down the Columbia River and through Portland. Even though the Tesora-Savage Oil-by-rail terminal in Vancouver, WA, which would have been North America's largest oil-by-rail terminal, was stopped two and a half-years ago, other oil transloading facilities are rearing their ugly heads in Portland and at Global Partners' facility at Port Westward near Clatskanie, Oregon.
On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Dr. Patsy Kullberg, with Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Dan Serres, Conservation Director for Columbia Riverkeeper, about why Global Partners' lack of transparency and long track record of environmental violations in Oregon, and elsewhere around the country, makes them an unreliable partner for Oregon communities.
Patsy Kullberg is a retired public health doctor and one of Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility's chief spokespeople. She is also a writer and the engineer for Locus Focus (or will be again when we return to live broadcasts from KBOO's studios).
Dan Serres is the Conservation Director for Columbia Riverkeeper and their point person for fighting fossil fuel projects along the Columbia River.
- KBOO