Three Jailed in Oil Train Blockade at Anacortes Tesoro Refinery

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Blockade at Anacortes Tesoro Refinery near Seattle.

For Immediate Release

7/28/14

Seattle, WA: The activists arrived at the Tesoro Refinery tracks at about 7:45am this morning, and finally released themselves shortly after noon, at which time they were taken into custody; the barrels remained on the tracks for about another half-hour while the police awaited equipment to remove them. About thirty supporters had surrounded the blockade; all eventually moved down the hill when police insisted, but remained nearby until the police cars drove off.

Both the arrestees and their supporters stressed the irresponsibility of the fossil fuel companies in sending massive amounts of such dangerous fuel through rural and urban communities across the country.

“Last Thursday’s derailment in Seattle was the last straw. If federal and state regulators won’t stand up to the fossil fuel companies endangering our communities, then we, the people of those communities, will do so,” said Jan Woodruff, an Anacortes retiree, as she sat on the tracks with her arm in a barrel filled with poured concrete. Woodruff was one of three people arrested after several hours of blockading the track, with an oil train right at a stop right behind them.

Retired lawyer Annette Klapstein of Bainbridge was another of the three; “Tesoro and the others are bad actors. If any other group of people exposed us to these risks, they’d be locked up,” she said. “This kind of resistance may seem extreme, but these are extreme times…and the resistance to this craziness won’t end with us.”

Rising Tide Seattle member Adam Gaya, the third arrestee, made a similar point. “People are on the alert: an industry willing to sacrifice the planet to catastrophic climate change doesn’t see a few vaporized towns and cities as ‘significant’. Fossil fuel companies can expect to see more actions like this one, focusing on the most egregious violations of common sense and moral responsibility.”

All three were released on their own recognizance at the end of the day.

Seattle Residents Blockade Tracks To Protest Dangerous Oil-By-Rail Projects

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Lockdown at the Anacortes Refinery near Seattle.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Emily Johnston, 206-660-4210

7:45am, Monday, July 28, 2014, Anacortes Tesoro Refinery

*Anacortes – *Three residents of Anacortes and Seattle are currently blockading the oil train facility at Tesoro’s Anacortes Refinery by locking their bodies to barrels full of concrete. Supported by local residents, the three are demanding an immediate halt to the shipment of explosive Bakken oil through Northwest communities, the rejection of all new oil-by-rail terminals proposed for the Northwest, and an end to the refinery’s repeated violations of the Clean Air Act.

“Thursday’s derailment was the last straw,” says Jan Woodruff, an Anacortes resident. “If Federal and State regulators won’t stand up to the fossil fuel companies endangering our communities, then we, the people of those communities, will do so.”

Last Thursday, July 24th, an oil train bound for Tesoro’s Anacortes Refinery derailed in Seattle, highlighting the dangers posed to Northwest communities. Between nine and sixteen oil trains travel through Seattle and Mount Vernon every week – about five of which are bound for the Tesoro refinery. The day before Thursday’s frightening derailment, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and all nine City Council members sent a letter to the Department of Transportation asking for an immediate halt of oil-by-rail shipments through Seattle.

Despite the extreme controversy over the transport of explosive Bakken Oil, all three of Washington’s oil-by-rail terminals were permitted without full environmental review or robust public consultation, through an obscure local process called a “mitigated determination of non-significance.” The same process was used to approve terminals at the Port of Gray’s Harbor and Shell’s Puget Sound Refinery before being reversed by legal challenges and public opposition.

“It’s no surprise that an industry willing to sacrifice the entire planet to catastrophic climate change doesn’t see a few vaporized towns and cities as ‘significant’” says Adam Gaya, a Seattle resident and member of the group Rising Tide Seattle. “With recent disasters and the accelerating climate crisis we shouldn’t even be considering new oil infrastructure.”

Tesoro’s Anacortes Refinery is no stranger to accidents. In 2010 it was the site of an explosion that killed seven workers; the company was later determined to have committed 39 “willful” and five “serious” violations of safety regulations. Both Anacortes refineries are also longtime Clean Air Act “High Priority Violators”, and Tesoro has announced that new railcars it purchases will be equipped to transport tar sands bitumen. Refineries that process tar sands have higher emissions of pollutants like sulfur dioxide and are more prone to explosions.

“Tesoro and the others are bad actors. If any other group of people exposed us to these risks, they’d be locked up,” says Annette Klapstein, a retired lawyer from Bainbridge Island. “This kind of resistance may seem extreme, but these are extreme times…and the resistance to this craziness won’t end with us.”

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Rising Tide Seattle Drops Banner On Wa. Gov. Inslee; “Moratorium On Oil Trains Now”

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Wa. Gov. Jay Inslee Talks With RT Seattle protestors

This week at the “Years of Living This week at the “Years of Living Dangerously” screening in Seattle with Wa. Governor Jay Inslee in attendance, Rising Tide Seattle protesting the event with exploding oil trains props, received a personal visit from Inslee on the street explaining that he was in agreement with RT Seattle.

Since he still hasn’t committed to protecting the climate and Washington communities from oil trains, so he got another reminder when a banner was unfurled from the balcony of the Cinerama after the screening and Chiara Rose asked him “Isn’t it on you” to place a moratorium on oil trains? He said it was…for coal trains.

We have a lot to be proud of in our governor, but we’re not going to let him get away with this one! Let’s set a trend for safety and green jobs instead of turning into a dirty energy corridor, WA state!