Their dirty deeds are done dirt cheap

Despite slick ads claiming they’re investing in a clean energy future, oil companies continue to pour billions of dollars into dirtier fuels, like tar sands, and run roughshod over communities far and near. Although no oil is drilled or refined in Oregon, our grandest river, the Columbia, has become an industrial corridor for heavy, oversized equipment being shipped from Asia to expand the Alberta Tar Sands in Canada. The transport of this megaload* then continues along one of the most beautiful (and steep and curvy!) routes in the country—Highway 12 between Lewiston, Idaho and Lola, Montana—and onward to northern Alberta. This heavy haul will destroy some of the West’s most scenic and historic roads; harm residents’ safety, quality of life and ability to maintain tourism; and cost taxpayers millions of dollars to fix roads and bridges damaged by the oil industry.

Equally troubling is that Highway 12 residents were kept in the dark about these plans till late in the process. Once they heard, they tried to stop it, but despite their valiant efforts, the transports begin today, February 1.

Extracting oil from tar sands is one of the most destructive ways to provide gasoline and diesel to our thirsty cars and trucks. It requires massive amounts of energy and water, wreaks havoc on local ecosystems, harms the health of people downwind and downstream, and results in even higher climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil.  

Here’s what doesn’t make sense to me:

• Why are we subsidizing the most profitable industry in the world? The Los Angeles Times reported that Exxon Mobile alone made a profit of $21.2 billion in the first three quarters of 2010, yet U.S. taxpayers continue subsidizing the oil industry to the tune of $4 billion a year. President Obama called for reinvesting those dollars in clean energy development, but was rebuffed by Congress.
• Why did officials in Montana and Idaho bend over backwards to help pave the way for the heavy haul when the taxpayers of those states will be left picking up the tab of maintaining the roads this megaload will tear apart?
• Why are Oregon and Washington, which have committed to fight climate change, enabling barges carrying tar-sands equipment to ply the mighty waters of our shared river when our states will also bear the environmental and economic costs of higher greenhouse gas emissions from tar-sand oil?

I posit that oil companies are working to extract every last drop of dinosaur fuel from our planet—rather than truly turning their attention to clean, renewable energy—because their dirty deeds are done dirt cheap: they receive massive subsidies for extraction and transport, while we—the people—end up paying the environmental, health, and social costs.

What can you do about this? A grassroots effort, All Against the Haul, is working to halt construction of the heavy-haul transportation corridor. Tar Free Oregon has sprung up to help Oregonians get involved in tar-sands issues. And here at OEC, we have been working to create robust rules for a statewide low-carbon fuel standard slated for adoption later this year. The last thing Oregon needs is carbon-intense tar-sand oil flooding the market. The low-carbon fuel standard will help the state slowly, but surely, wean itself off of Big Oil.

Here’s an opportunity to learn more soon: OEC invites you to join Tar Free Oregon at the director’s screening of a new documentary, Dirty Oil, on February 9 at 6:30 PM at the Bagdad Theater in Portland. Hope to see you there!

*Seriously—these megaloads are heavier than the Statue of Liberty, as tall and wide as a three-story building, and three-quarters of a football field long.