01.05 Engineering World Takes Note of Opposition Efforts
- Posted by Trish Weber
- News
In the 20 December 2010 edition of the engineering and construction industry trade publication Engineering News-Record, an article titled “Oil-Sands Equipment Modules Stranded in Transit in Idaho” mentioned AATH and Fighting Goliath by name as the driving forces keeping 44 KMTP modules stranded at the Port of Lewiston.
Getting supersized prefabricated steel modules to the Kearl oil-sands proj¬ect in Alberta is proving to be the toughest part of the job for Canada’s Im¬perial Oil and ExxonMobil Canada. The evidence is in Lewiston, Idaho.
...
But the needed transportation permits for both Idaho and Montana are on hold, with no decision date in sight.
(from ENR’s lips to the deity’s ears, is all this blogger can say)
The proposal has drawn spirited op¬position from environmental groups-including both All Against the Haul and Fighting Goliath-opposed to oil-sands development and concerned that the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway will be-come a permanent heavy-hauling indus¬trial route. The groups have brought claims in state court against the movement of the modules.
(well, technically the claims in state court were brought by individual plaintiffs, though Borg & Lin founded “Fighting Goliath”, which is a member organization of AATH, so this is probably splitting hairs)
But nothing will move without the needed permits, which Imperial Oil still hopes to secure. “We currently have 44 modules [in] Lewiston,” Rolheiser says. “We continue to work through the pro¬cess. If we arrive at the point where we do not have permits, we would need to look at our options.”
(presumably one of those options would be not letting the door hit your hind ends on the way out?)
Seriously, ENR is a highly respected industry trade publication, so getting a shout-out for the effectiveness of our efforts is a nice feather in our caps. Yay AATH!