Reading the Dec. 19 story (“Crude oil in state tops 1M barrels per week”) about the increase in oil train traffic in Washington brings back memories. Memories of the anti-oil terminal crowd, predicting disasters that would ruin the landscape, pollute the Columbia and maybe even kill people, yet none of that has happened. According to the story (by The Spokesman-Review), 82,000 rail cars filled with nearly 2.5 trillion gallons of oil have traversed the state with not one derailment. In fact, going back to 2010, there have been exactly zero derailments of trains pulling oil cars.
It’s sad when a small, very vocal group can have so much sway over our lawmakers. The oil is still being transported across the state, but headed to other cities where well-paid people are employed handling those rail cars. Jobs that are sorely needed in Vancouver are going elsewhere.
