“An oil train is shown in Seattle. The highly controversial trains haul rail
cars loaded with oil brought from the oil fields of North Dakota and Montana.”
Photo credit: Joshua Trujillo, SeattlePI.com.

– “Shell pulls plug on 60,000-barrel-a-day oil train facility at Anacortes”
“The oil giant Shell has withdrawn its controversial proposed oil train unloading facility and rail spur at its March Point refinery near Anacortes, a project designed to accept 60,000 barrels a day of crude from North Dakota.

The withdrawal comes two days after the state Department of Ecology and Skagit County released a draft environmental impact statement on the project, with three public meetings announced for Anacortes, Mount Vernon and Seattle.

‘Economic conditions no longer support permitting of rail unloading facility,’ Shell said in a tweet.

Shirley Yap, the refinery’s general manager, said in a statement that falling crude oil prices undermined the project’s economic viability. ‘At today’s prices, even if I had a (rail) facility, I would not be buying Bakken,’ Yap said in a statement.

The oil-by-rail proposal has been challenged by the state’s major environmental groups. They held out a different explanation for why the project is not going ahead.

‘Shell realized what local residents and First Nations people have been saying all along: Shipping oil by rail through Washington is bad for business, bad for our environment and threatens the safety of our communities,’ said Collin Jergens of Fuse Washington, the state’s biggest progressive organizing group,” quoting Joel Connelly, SeattlePI.com.
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