Category Archives: Environmental Impacts

Air Quality, Climate Change, Environmental Impacts, Fossil fuels

Richard Heinberg video, part II: The Great Burning

Repost from Post Carbon Institute

The Great Burning

By Richard Heinberg, April 16, 2015


Part two of a four-part video series. Released in conjunction with Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels.

What will we do when the Great Burning comes to an end?

In this short video, Richard Heinberg explores why The Great Burning — the combustion of oil, coal, and natural gas — must come to an end during the next few decades. If the twentieth century was all about increasing our burn rate year after blazing year, the dominant trend of twenty-first century will be a gradual flame-out.

This video is the second in a four-part series by Richard Heinberg and Post Carbon Institute. (View Part 1 Here.) The themes covered in these videos are much more thoroughly explored in Heinberg’s latest book, Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels.

Special thanks to New Society Publishers for partnering with us on this fantastic series and to Shutterstock.com for granting image rights.
Air Quality, Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Environmental Impacts, Marine transport, Rail Safety

New Refinery Proposed For Washington Port on Columbia River, first on West Coast in 25 years

Repost from Northwest Public Radio
[Editor:  See also at Riverkeeper, Reuters, Oregon Public Broadcasting and Bakken.com.  – RS]

Refinery Proposed For Columbia River

By Conrad Wilson, April 15, 2015 4:47 pm
Port of Longview
Port of Longview, Credit Google Images

The Port of Longview has been in talks with an energy company about building a crude oil refinery in southwest Washington.

Washington’s Port of Longview says it is in talks with an energy company that last year submitted plans for a crude oil refinery on the Columbia River.

Details of the company’s planned refinery surfaced Wednesday through public records obtained and released by Columbia Riverkeeper.

A potential agreement between Riverside Energy, Inc. and the port, outlined in an unsigned memo of understanding dated July, 2014, described plans for the development of the first refinery on the Columbia River and the first on the West Coast in 25 years. The refinery would have a capacity of 30,000 barrels per day and produce a mix of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel all primarily for regional use, according to the documents, which were sent Wednesday to media organizations.

Port of Longview spokeswoman Ashley Helenberg said the proposal detailed in the documents is not an active proposal. She said the port is still working with Riverside Energy and is awaiting an updated proposal from the company. Helenberg said the port did not yet know what the new proposal would include, but that it would likely be for a crude oil refinery.

Oil prices have dropped sharply in recent months and oil production in North Dakota has fallen off, as well.

The newly released documents indicated that oil would travel to Longview by rail from the Bakken fields of North Dakota, creating an estimated traffic of 10 trains per month. The refined products would then travel by water.

Several trains carrying crude oil have derailed and exploded in recent years.

Columbia Riverkeeper Executive Director Brett VandenHeuvel said he would not want to see the proposed refinery materialize.

“This is shocking new information. Refineries are extremely polluting. Highly toxic air pollution,” he said. “And to combine a refinery with explosive oil trains — it’s the worst of both worlds.”

A presentation from Riverside Refining LLC estimated the project would create more than 400 construction jobs and 150 permanent positions, with an average annual wage of $75,000. The refinery would use “state-of-the-art processing technology” and “will have a lower carbon footprint than existing West Coast refineries,” according to the documents.

The refinery described in the documents would be smaller than the existing refineries in Washington. British Petroleum,  Phillips 66, Tesoro and Shell own refineries in Northwest Washington, each of which has a capacity of at least 100,000 barrels per day. Tacoma’s U.S. Oil & Refining Co. has a capacity of 39,000 barrels per day.

Blast zone, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Environmental Impacts, Evacuation, Explosion, Massive increase in crude-by-rail, Water quality, Wildlife

Report: Oil Trains Threaten 25 Million Americans, Wildlife

Repost from Endangered Earth, Center For Biological Diversity

Center For Biological Diversity Report: Oil Trains Threaten 25 Million Americans, Wildlife

No. 762, Feb. 19, 2015

North Dakota oil train explosionAs the investigation continues into the two latest explosive oil-train derailments in Ontario and West Virginia, the Center for Biological Diversity released a report this morning outlining striking new details about the risk oil trains pose to people and wildlife across the country. Our analysis, called Runaway Risks, finds that 25 million Americans live within the one-mile “evacuation zone” and that oil trains routinely pass within a quarter-mile of 3,600 miles of streams and more than 73,000 square miles of lakes, wetlands and reservoirs.

These dangerous trains also pass through 34 national wildlife refuges and critical habitat for 57 threatened and endangered species, including bull trout, salmon, piping plovers and California red-legged frogs.

Oil-by-rail transport has increased 40-fold since 2008 without any meaningful new safety measures. As a result, destructive accidents and spills are now occurring with disturbing frequency.

“The federal government has failed to provide adequate protection from these bomb trains,” said the Center’s Jared Margolis. “We clearly need a moratorium on crude-by-rail until the safety of our communities and the environment can be ensured.”

Read about the report, check out this interactive map of oil train routes around the country, and then tell the Obama administration to protect us from these dangerous trains.