General Electric Files to Intervene in Federal Megaloads Court Case

8/27/2013

Press Release - GE petitions to intervene in megaloads case.pdf

BOISE — General Electric, the fourth largest corporation in the world, has petitioned to intervene in a federal lawsuit filed by Idaho Rivers United and the Nez Perce Tribe. The suit seeks to protect the Lochsa-Clearwater Wild and Scenic River corridor from transport of enormous industrial megaloads bound for the tar sands of northern Alberta. “GE’s intervention shows how desperately the oil industry and their contractors want to convert one of America’s first Wild and Scenic River corridors into an industrial highway,” said IRU Conservation Director Kevin Lewis. “We need to have this discussion. They need to know the Lochsa-Clearwater is a national treasure, not an industrial corridor.” Citing “significant financial impact” and the potential to suffer “millions of dollars in lost revenue,” General Electric’s attorneys filed in federal court Monday, Aug. 26. The court scheduled a hearing for Sept. 9 at 4 p.m. at the federal courthouse in Boise. Though GE is citing potential financial losses, the company has known its shipments would meet resistance since at least last April, long before it barged megaloads up the lower Snake River and equipped them for transport through the Wild and Scenic corridor. In an April 4 letter, IRU’s attorney, Laird Lucas, relayed to industrial shipper Omega Morgan that use of Highway 12 violated multiple legal authorities and would be strongly opposed. “Resistance to mega-load shipments on Idaho’s Highway 12 remains strong, both among local citizens and among the many organizations committed to protecting the route,” Lucas wrote. “The strength of this opposition can increase both the time necessary to transport equipment on Highway 12 and the cost of this transport.” Still, Omega Morgan moved two GE-owned loads up the lower Snake River and trucked one through the Nez Perce Tribe’s reservation and the Wild and Scenic corridor, where the company met significant tribal and citizen resistance. “They set themselves up for this,” Lewis said. “They created this conflict. This is a place that’s not for sale. It doesn’t have a price.” Filed Aug. 8 during the shipment of GE’s first load, the IRU and Nez Perce Tribe lawsuit seeks an injunction to protect one of the first Wild and Scenic River segments in the nation. It charges that the U.S. Forest Service’s failure to stop the megaload from entering the Wild and Scenic corridor was “arbitrary, capricious, (and) an abuse of discretion.” The injunction would prevent megaloads while the Forest Service implements regulations to protect the corridor. “It’s obvious the Forest Service ought to be joining us and not GE,” Lewis said. Since the fall of 2008, the oil industry and a specialized group of shipping companies have been working to convert U.S. Highway 12 into an industrial high-and-wide corridor that prioritizes the transport of megaloads over other uses of the highway. And they’ve been doing so in flagrant violation of all applicable legal authorities. “To be clear, IRU is not anti-corporate. Some of our best supporters are large and responsible corporations like AIRE and Patagonia,” Lewis said. “But this is a clear example of the world’s largest companies exploiting local highways, a federally protected river corridor, a tribal homeland and local residents to further their corporate profits. And they’re doing it at the expense of a spiritual, scenic and recreational national treasure.” Omega Morgan has agreed not to attempt moving another megaload, already being stored at the Port of Wilma near Lewiston, until Sept. 18.

Latest Highway 12 Megaload News

Montana judge okays modifications to megaload injunction but denies dissolving the injunction...
Yesterday afternoon, in the Missoula County vs MDT case, Montana Judge Ray Dayton issued a "Memorandum and Order Granting Imperial Oil's Application to Modify Preliminary Injunction and Denying its Application to Dissolve Preliminary Injunction."
The "modification" allows MDT to review and process 32-J permit applications from Imperial/Exxon to transport modified KMTP loads over Highways 12 and 93 in order to access the interstate system. The "modified KMTP loads" are those that have been reduced in size, such as those currently sitting at the Port of Lewiston.
You may recall that the Missoula County vs MDT case has to do with the environmental reviews related to Imperial/Exxon's construction of turnouts. In his memorandum, the judge notes, "no new turnouts would be constructed or are necessary."
With Idaho poised to issue Hwy. 12 permits, the above is obviously bad news.

Megaload info pages... and "subscriptions"... ITD abandons its responsibility...
Apparently ITD has decided that informing the public about road-blocking megaload transport schedules on Highways 12 or 95 is outside ITD's role. According to the following 10/5/11 press release, ITD has asked Nickel Bros/Weyerhaeuser and Imperial/Exxon to inform the public, and the public has to "subscribe" in order to receive updates.
10/5/2011
Contact: Adam Rush, ITD Public Involvement Coordinator
BOISE – Travel schedules for over legal shipments on U.S. 12, U.S. 95 and Interstate 90 are now available online for ExxonMobil/Mammoet and Weyerhaeuser/Nickel Bros shipments.... The webpages will be updated 24 hours in advance of a shipment by Exxon or Weyerhaeuser....
In the past, such issuance of corporate updates has been erratic at best, seldom timely. The "Privacy Policy" at the Nickel site simply says they won't share your email address, but the Imperial/Exxon site's "Privacy Statement" speaks of their gathering info from your computer, using your personal information to, among other things, "market products and services," and "storing some information on your computer." Typical perhaps, but...

The main point is that ITD, which has often been unsure of when megaload shipments will occur, appears to have entirely abandoned its role in informing its public.

Economy; Lolo Hot Springs feels the heat, by Matthew Frank, Missoula Independent, 10/6/11
The recession has been relatively kind to Montana's tourism industry, though Brent Olson might say otherwise. On Sept. 19, Olson, the owner of Lolo Hot Springs, a year-round resort on Highway 12 between Lolo and the Montana-Idaho border, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
"Our business has dropped off probably about a third of what it used to be," says Olson, a Las Vegas-based real estate investor. ... he doesn't think Imperial Oil's gigantic test module, which has been parked in front of the nearby Lodge at Lolo Hot Springs for about six months, has helped any. The lodge has been compensated for the inconvenience; the resort hasn't.... Read more: http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/economy/Content?oid=1503338

Two megaload protesters released on bond after Thursday-night arrest, Lewiston Tribune, 10/7/11
MOSCOW - Two megaload protesters face maximum penalties of one year in jail and $1,000 fines after being arrested and jailed Thursday night on one misdemeanor charge each of obstructing and resisting an officer.
Zachary E. Johnson, 33, and Aaron T. Malgren, 22, both of Moscow, posted $500 bonds early Friday morning and were released from the Latah County Jail...
Both men, according to citations, allegedly rode bicycles on the roadway as three megaloads destined for oil fields in Canada rolled through town. Read more: http://lmtribune.com/article_a07641c2-f102-11e0-afd2-001a4bcf6878.html

Video of Megaload on Highway 12

To view Vickie Garcia's video, shown at the contested case hearing during her testimony, go here: "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehstxkkO6aQ"
Vickie and her husband Walt Bailey were among the 3-4 dozen north central Idaho residents and Missoula residents who monitored and observed the 2 ConocoPhillips' shipments and the Imperial/Exxon so-called "test" shipment. Vickie's video clearly shows that the ITD-approved traffic management plan of the first ConocoPhillips' shipment was woefully inadequate at best, and at worst, seriously chaotic, inconvenient and unsafe.