VANCOUVER, Wash. — The Port of Vancouver has agreed to pay $45,000 and has released further details about plans for an oil-by-rail terminal to settle a public records lawsuit.
The Clark County Natural Resources Council sued last May after the port released a copy of Vancouver Energy’s lease that the group considered to be improperly redacted. The port agreed to lift all but three of the redactions as part of a settlement announced Thursday.
Vancouver Energy is a partnership between oil refiner Tesoro Corp. and Savage Cos., a transportation firm. The companies are planning to build a major terminal for receiving oil by rail and transferring it to ships that would bring it to refineries along the West Coast.
The newly disclosed details in the 429-page lease show Vancouver Energy could expand or build a second oil-by-rail facility if it handles more than 400,000 barrels of crude, on average, with the first terminal, The Columbian newspaper reported.
The port commission unanimously approved the lease in 2013. The port released a version with 22 redactions that year and another version with 11 redactions in April 2014, saying release of further details would harm the port’s ability to compete economically.
“It’s now been two years since the Vancouver Energy lease was first approved,” port CEO Todd Coleman said in a news release. “We’re now at a point where we feel releasing this information is important for transparency, and poses little risk to the port’s ability to remain competitive.”
The Tesoro-Savage terminal would receive crude from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota. As many as four full trains would arrive per day.
The project is being reviewed by the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council. That panel will make a recommendation to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who holds the final say on a permit. But there are other jurisdictions — including the Corps of Engineers — that must issue permits along the way for the terminal to be built.
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