Protect The Columbia River

After more than four years of environmental review and process, Washington Governor Jay Inslee rejected the largest oil shipping terminal proposed in North America as not in the best interests of the state and its people. The Tesoro Savage project (also known as Vancouver Energy) sought to ship over 131 million barrels of oil per year down the Columbia River. Governor Inslee cited the comprehensive review and recommendation of the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC), which found unavoidable catastrophic risks from earthquakes, oil spills in the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, and the threat of fire or explosion at the facility. The project would also cause up to five, mile-and-a-half long oil trains to pass through Spokane, the Columbia River Gorge, and the City of Vancouver every day with additional harms to public health and safety and increased climate changing pollution. Read the full write up via the Coastal Blog.

Washington chapters joined forces across the Columbia River with the Surfrider chapters in Oregon, and with our partners in the Stand Up To Oil Coalition, we helped to collectively amplify the voice of opposition to this unenlightened proposal. Surfrider staff and hundreds of activists from across both states sent letters to the state agencies leading these environmental reviews, signed petitions, attended rallies and provided public testimony. For the Vancouver public comment period, along with our coalition partners, we helped to submit 279,000 comments, the most ever received by the Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council. All came with one unified message—Not The Answer. Read more from a recent article in The Drop.