Comments

1
If consumers (you and I) aren't going to choose more expensive and shorter range, electric cars, solar generated electricity, etc., over cheap, abundant fossil fuels, then we need to move the energy sources we prefer with our consumer choices via pipeline. They are the safest means of moving petroleum Nothing is safe or without environmental trade-offs, but some choices are safer than others.
2
Could someone list the specific rules that proponents wish to supplement the existing Coast Guard rules on barge transport?
3
Additional tugs for one. As the article let points out, once a spill happens, the damage is done. Recovery of spilled oil is a small percentage of what got spilled and environmental remediation is not that effective. Adding an additional tug per barge does the redundancy to prevent a grounding and spill. It also doubles the cost per gallon moved. Even with single tugs grounding and spills are rare as a percentage of product shipped. When those spills occur they have very high consequences. So how much more are you and I willing to pay every day to reduce major groundings and spills from once every 3 decades to once every 4 or 5 (or whatever tbe change is) It's subjective.
5
This corporate-run-amok insanity has GOT to be STOPPED!
This shit is personal to me---I grew up near Padilla Bay, and the San Juan Islands.

Folks, this is exponentially worse than Dixy Lee Ray (WA Governor 1976-80)'s reckless okaying of supertankers on Puget Sound, and green-lighting the slapping down of nuke plants every two feet.

For everyone who has just moved here, consider why you did. Was it largely because of the promise of a high paying job, and /or that Washington State has been so livable, beautiful, and sustainable? All that will become an industrial wasteland if the brakes don't get slammed now.
We need to get the poison--Doug Ericksen---Free Lunch, R-Ferndale, 42nd District---and his pal, Baumgarter R-Spokane, OUT of the Washington State Senate, for starters.
6
@5. We - voters/consumers - are the cause. We choose cheap/abundant fossils over expensive battery/solar/wind. Shell, et. al. don't care what form of energy we consume. They will sell it to us at a 11% net profit regardless of what form of energy we choose. We could stop this tomorrow were we willing to put our choices and money where our typed comments are.
7
Six times what?
2,000 more that how many?

Oil sucks but math illiteracy kills.
8
Calm down Auntie, I'm sympathetic to your desires to keep Puget Sound clean for generations to come. I have a house near Dabob Bay and would be very sorry to see it spoiled. We have to trust our officials to make sure that this doesn't happen.
9
@6: Excellent points well taken. In consideration of future generations (I'm childless, but my siblings and the majority of my friends have kids), I don't drive every day; I save my beloved classic stick shift (which wouldn't handle well on freeway bumper-to-bumper, anyway) for pleasure trips, walk and ride public transit. I'm very fortunate to live where I do, and that I have choices. Many aren't so fortunate.
@7 Laurian: What math figures are you citing? Please stop if it starts to hurt.
@8: longwayhome: Your theory only works if the elected or, in the case of the 42nd District for example, bought in politicians actually care about the welfare of the people in the district they are supposed to represent. Doug Ericksen clearly does NOT. Our state is blindly hurtling into the wrong direction with Big Oil / Big Coal lobbyists at the helm, bullying Governor Jay Inslee and others who DO care about the consequences of climate change into submissive silence.
10
@7 Laurian: Excuse me! I owe you an apology! My outrage at this out of control environmental disaster got in the way of my better judgment (YES--I admit it freely). It's the pro Big Oil / Big Coal backers who are mathematically fucked up. I humbly apologize to you. You nailed it. Math illiteracy kills, and we can openly blame Doug Ericksen when Seattle becomes the next Lac-Megantic, Quebec. It's only a matter of when, now.

Sydney, you won't hear anything back from Doug Ericksen. He is the problem as I have mentioned in my previous comments, and the main reason why Washington State is going to hell.
11
Why weren't barges covered under the same regulations in Puget Sound as tankers……wait for it…..it's because they are being towed by tugs you moron so why would they need a tug escort !! Another point is it's cheaper by far to transport by tanker then barge so why would any corporation even consider moving backwards.
Can we please be intelligent about this.
12
I have seen a Report of Marine Barges in The Business Research Company and it contains the statistics of market of global marine barges market growth. Visit the website here http://thebusinessresearchcompany.com/ou…

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.