Guest Column
Writer to Gov. Schweitzer: It’s Not Too Late to Stop the Big Rigs
Author asks what Montana will get as a gateway to Alberta's tar sands oil development.By Annick Smith, Guest Writer, 10-14-10
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| ANNICK SMITH | |
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Dear Governor Schweitzer,
I remember the stirring speech you gave at the Democratic National Convention in 2008: “We face a great new challenge, one that threatens our economy, our security, our climate and our very way of life …. This costly reliance on fossil fuels threatens America and the world. … We need a new energy system that is clean, green and American made.”
That day I was proud of my governor for being on the side of the future. Now, I’m not so proud. These days you say, “We need energy and the safest supply right now is coming from places like Alberta,” meaning the dirtiest type of fossil fuel, extracted from tar sands. And then you say, “this is conflict-free oil.”
I’m afraid, Mr. Governor, that Alberta’s tar sands oil is in no way conflict free. Putting aside big-time environmental objections, let’s focus on conflicts in Montana. The equipment necessary to mine and extract tar sands oil is gigantic. It is manufactured in Asia, not in the U.S. or Canada.Super trucks are needed to haul super machines, and the shortest, cheapest way to haul them from South Korea to Alberta is across the Pacific, up the Columbia and Snake rivers, then overland through Idaho and Montana. We will be the sacrifice zone for super profits for multinational corporations such as Exxon and Conoco, and foreign countries such as Holland, South Korea and Canada. Their plans, which your administration seems to be backing, would transform Highway 12-- a national scenic byway along the Clearwater and Lochsa rivers--and Highway 200, along the world-famous “River That Runs Through It,” into a permanent industrial corridor.
Big Rigs are 220 feet long, up to 29 feet wide, and 30 feet tall and when loaded will weigh up to 650,000 pounds. They will take up both lanes of Highways 12 and 200--narrow, winding, cliffside roads--and are heavier and longer vehicles than any two-lane in Montana was built to hold. Accidents are sure to happen. Only a couple of weeks ago, a diesel tanker slipped off Highway 12 and spilled 7,500 gallons of fuel, endangering the Lochsa River. What if it had been a Big Rig? Think of what’s coming. It’s like a monster movie. Every night for who knows how many months and years, giant mechanical beasts will traverse our countryside and pass through towns such as Lolo, Missoula and Lincoln. They will delay emergency services and local traffic, depress property values, destroy historic and archeological sites and harm tourism and recreational businesses that are the lifeblood of our communities.
In exchange, what will Montana get? As you, yourself have said, “Since when has [an] oil company ever been interested in jobs? Let’s be honest ….it’s green technology that is creating the most jobs right now…. 10 times more than any other sector.” Here’s what we’ll get: low-paying jobs for highway workers who hold the stop-and-go signs on Lolo Pass and Rogers Pass in sub-zero temperatures; some work for police and local contractors; a few million dollars for state coffers that will in no way offset the profits the oil companies will reap by taking our shortcut. And what will Montanans pay? Taxes, of course, due in the long run to repair our damaged infrastructure. Defaced rivers and valleys. And a probable net loss of jobs from tourism and recreation.
But it’ not too late. We don’t have to be a colonial state. This insult to our way of life can be stopped before it starts. So, please, Governor Schweitzer, return to your call for green energy and help the concerned citizens of Montana stop the Big Rigs from running over us. We’ve seen enough damage from heedless corporations to learn our lesson. Just look at the BP oil disaster in the Gulf; Massey’s coal miner deaths in West Virginia; the dead and still dying people in Libby, suffering from asbestos poisoning due to WR Grace’s negligence.
As a longtime resident of the Blackfoot Valley who loves her home place, as a grandmother who wants to pass the Montana she prizes on to her three granddaughters--and on behalf of hundreds others determined to protect our way of life--I suggest that you and your administration rethink your policies and keep those Big Rigs off our roads.
Sincerely,
Annick Smith
EDITOR’S NOTE
Annick Smith is the author of “Homestead,” “Big Bluestem” and “In This We Are Native.” She co-edited the anthology “The Last Best Place” and served as co-producer of the movie “A River Runs Through It.” Tonight, along with fellow writers Bill Kittredge, David James Duncan and Rick Bass, she’s hosting a private dinner titled “All Against the Haul,” a conversation about the Exxon/Imperial Oil Kearl Module Transport Project. For more on the project, see New West’s coverage, Parts I and II of Standing in the Way: How One Idaho Couple Plans to Stop Big Oil’s Big Rigs.
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Comments
How come the "literary" people in Montana are so often so far to the Left?
I am a sweater-wearing, car-free supporter of the gerbil generator technologies you promote. Perhaps I have earned the right to be heard.
My family has lost much of their property on Lolo Creek due to altered stream mechanics from the original construction of Hwy 12. This beautiful waterway with big Brown Trout and home to a variety of waterfowl is already classified as "impaired" by the MTDEQ. Further construction threatens this already degraded stream. Readers should be wary of the false dichotomy offered by Mr. Skinner. The choice is not fossil fuels or gerbils as he may have us think. There are a wide variety of technologies, efficiency strategies, and policy options that would allow us to move away from the incredibly harmful projects like the KMTP and others associated with the tar sands. We must demand that these options be considered fairly, free of the rhetorical fallacies like those presented by Mr. Skinner.
Can you provide information as to how to write to the governor to allow people to voice their opposition?
Office of the Governor
Montana State Capitol Bldg.
P.O. Box 200801
Helena MT 59620-0801
ol BS is just looking toward the next level and te "hell with Montana" And unfortuante that the "good life" we remember with values and standards seems to be behind us ( for now)
God Bless America
Keep the Faith-
Govenor phone # used to be 406-444-3111
sometimes Marc and also Judy would answer- now you'll most likey get an exchange monitored from India- oops;-)
ask for John B- BS is probably too busy-
Good Luck
Yes, we need a diverse array of energy solutions, including but not limited to fossil fuels, at least for the foreseeable future.
Get local buy-in for industrial wind-farms, and put them a) where they don't obstruct an important view, b) where they don't have significant wildlife impacts, and c) where they don't destroy a cultural use like sacred Native American sites or historic trails. In Wyoming alone, that leaves five million acres.
We already have great laws, and if the feds would just follow them, things like this Idaho/Montana highway debacle wouldn't have happened. They tried to hide what should have been a public input process from the public, because some influential people with influential $ wanted the highway so badly they were willing to sacrifice someone else's back-yard, their tourism, and their rights!
I'm sure the companies will be making $ hand over fist without cutting costs by destroying local tourism economies along highway 12, so why do they have to have our souls in addition to our money?
One has to draw a line somewhere, and needing gas isn't a good enough reason for allowing companies to walk all over our laws and local economies across the West.
Name calling won't help here folks.
We can all help by be more conscious of what energy sources we are using and conserve more. Stop using plastic grocery bags. Stop using plastic water bottles for convenience. Reuse, recycle, and yes - refuse -- unneeded straws at take out restaurants, tops on cups when you don't need one. Every little bit helps.
It's great that a celebrity is published writing about this, but we all need to write the Governor and ask him to look at every aspect of our energy future while we do more research every day about how we can leave our land better off and yet still be able to drive a car or turn on a light. We all must learn more ways to step more lightly. We are not going to be given another planet to waste, ever.
But then it's easier to name call than get out and do something to help make our world a better place.
Next
It
Might
Be
You
let's hope you find people who want to consider facts and not just cry NIMBY
Evolution.
this equipment can be made in MT or Canada.
this equipment can be shipped on the traditional route thru the gulf of mexico and up the central U.S.
thank you ms. smith for your letter
But the question remains if such a manufacturing facility exists in America, or if not, how loud the howls of opposition would be to such a facility, and how many decades it would take to wade the court system in order to get the facility built and pooping out modules.
The simple fact is, these hunks of steel are just that. There's nothing terrible or toxic about them, no significant threat to either the Clearwater or Lolo water....this is all about the evil oil sands projects, the Greenpeace bete noir from Heck.
No matter what happens here, the modules WILL in fact be delivered to Alberta. Maybe they will have to be reloaded and run through the Canal to Texas and trucked up forthwith, but they will be delivered, set up, and put in production.
So this is all more of the pointless delay and frippery, of deflectionist games raising false issues to get at something else entirely. It is incredibly dishonest to cry a river about these modules if in fact the problem you have is with the oil sands. Go up there, chain yourselves to a machine in the pit, or try to organize a boycott of Canuckistanian oil sands products -- but don't insult the intelligence of everyone else by baiting and shuffling.