Washington Business Spring 2019 | Washington Business | Page 38

business backgrounder | transportation
first responders easy access to rail contents traveling through
their territories in the event of an accident.
the ‘third rail’
There have been targeted pushes in cities such as Spokane to
punish rail companies for carrying energy commodities like
coal and fuel in rail cars through the community. The end goal:
stop the import of those products to Washington state as part
of weaning consumers off the use of fossil fuels.
“Where we really get concerned are permitting headwinds
and political voices being used against products some people
don’t like,” Wallace said. “We’re seeing that in the fossil fuel
projects some of our customers have tried to develop.”
As an industry, railroads are what’s called a “common carrier.”
That means they are required by law to move all regulated
products, whether that’s coal, oil, chemicals used for cleaning,
food, cars or other things legally permissible.
In some cases, permits are delayed in order to stop the
transport of certain products. “It’s getting wrapped around the
axle due to things that have nothing to do with the permitting
process,” Wallace said. “Our concern is that when you have a
legal product and there’s demand for that product, whether it’s
GMOs or cars that still run on gasoline or planes that still use
fuel, when does that stop?”
The ongoing political battle belies the fact that only 8
percent of cargo transported into Washington state are energy
commodities, such as petroleum and gas.
The uncertainty it creates in the permitting process is
placing rail companies in the middle of a debate that is based on
consumer demand, here and abroad, for energy products that
power their homes and vehicles.
One glaring example is the years-long permitting delays for
the Millennium Bulk Terminals project at the Port of Longview,
which would have relied on rail to transport energy commodities
to the port.
After six years of waiting and complying with layers of a
drawn-out Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and other
necessary permitting processes, the state Department of Ecology
(DOE) denied Millennium’s project permits. The company
responded with a lawsuit against the DOE, citing in its complaint:
“Instead of giving Millennium the fundamental procedural and
“Trucks and trains, along with barges, ships
and planes, are part of an interconnected
intermodal network that delivers 54 tons
of goods per American every year.”
– Nate Kaplan, state director, GoRail
38 association of washington business
substantive process it was due, Ecology cherry-picked non-
water-quality effects found in the EIS as a pretext to veto the
water quality certification — and the project — altogether.”
Zak Anderson, BNSF’s vice president, corporate relations,
addressed the issue at the Pacific Northwest Economic Region’s
annual summit in Spokane last July. He said the process that
gives permission to build projects, such as the $680 million
Millennium Bulk Terminals-Longview project, has been
“hijacked” by special interest groups.
Those groups primarily objected to one commodity — coal —
traveling to and out of the port.
“It makes building anything impossible,” Anderson said. “It’s
becoming a long, drawn-out process simply due to inertia.”
Bruce Agnew, director of the Discovery Institute’s Cascadia
Center, which is a strategic alliance from Vancouver, B.C., to
Eugene, Ore., that focuses on freight mobility among other
regional issues, said the “globalization of the permitting process
is a head-scratcher.”
“It’s an example of the railroad trying to do good things in
terms of environment and safety — environment by hauling
freight with fewer air emissions and safety because their record
is really good,” Agnew said.
And, yet, he said, the permitting process has stalled the
projects, citing environmental protection.
Agnew also serves on the Coalition for America’s Gateways
and Trade Corridors (CAGTC), along with the state’s ports,
transportation department, railroads, shippers and others. The
coalition, he said, did a report on the permitting process in
Washington state.
“The group canvassed all their members around the country,
and all came to the same conclusion on the need to streamline
the permitting process to boost export markets without changing
the substance of environmental laws,” Agnew said.
moving forward to address increased
freight rail
As Washington’s economy continues to grow, so too will the
need to increase freight rail capacity. A report by the Washington
State Department of Transportation, (WSDOT) the “2017
Washington state freight system plan,” includes information
on freight and rail growth projections. It shows freight truck
volume is forecasted to grow 1.5 percent annually, while rail
volume is expected to increase by 0.9 percent.
The report notes that “rail volume growth may strain capacity
and access,” which is something that should be addressed as
more people — and more demand for goods — will invariably
create greater challenges on the state’s roadways.
Wallace said people don’t realize the appetite for more
infrastructure — ports, roadways, railroads, barges and trucking
— because they are all part of the supply chain that meets the
demands of consumers here and abroad.