Along Lochsa & Clearwater Rivers, Oil Cos Covet Narrow Road For Gigantic Tar-Sands Tech Loads - NYT

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KOOSKIA, Idaho — As U.S. Highway 12 hugs the serpentine banks of the Clearwater and Lochsa Rivers here, road signs bear the silhouettes of the 19th-century explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, with Mr. Lewis pointing off into the distance. He is not pointing the way for big oil companies, says Lin Laughy, whose gravel driveway abuts the road. But to Mr. Laughy’s dismay, international oil companies see this meandering, backcountry route as a road to riches. They are angling to use U.S. 12 to ship gargantuan loads of equipment from Vancouver, Wash., to Montana and the tar sands of Alberta in Canada. The companies say the route would save time and money and provide a vital economic boost to Montana and Idaho.

The problem, said Mr. Laughy, is that the proposed loads are so large — and would travel so slowly — that they would literally block the highway as they rolled through. According to plans submitted to state regulators, some of the shipments would weigh more than 600,000 pounds, stand as tall as a three-story building, stretch nearly two-thirds the length of a football field and occupy 24 feet side-to-side — the full width of U.S. 12’s two lanes for much of its course through Idaho.

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But Mr. Laughy, whose home sits on a ridge above U.S. 12, about 75 miles east of Lewiston, says the oil equipment is different. He points to thin margins of error along U.S. 12, where the road slices a tight path between rising rock walls on one side and a quick drop-off to the river on the other. He also fears that sooner or later, an emergency vehicle rushing toward a fire or delivering someone to a hospital will be slowed by the meandering shipments, potentially costing lives. “The companies say they have no plans to make this a permanent corridor,” he said. “But once the first shipment is allowed, what’s to stop the next one, and then the next one?”

Supporters of the shipments say they would inject millions of dollars into struggling rural economies along the route. “This wouldn’t be just an economic benefit for Lewiston,” said David Doeringsfeld, manager of the Port of Lewiston, “but for all of north-central Idaho.” Mr. Doeringsfeld said he had been approached by several other companies interested in using the corridor. In May, Mr. Laughy and Ms. Hendrickson started a Web site called Fighting Goliath, which serves as a clearinghouse of information related to the megaloads, as the shipments are called. The site has since drawn the attention of regional and national environmental activists, and a movement has mobilized around the goal of stopping the loads. “I have never really seen so many people have such a unified voice against a project,” said Nick Stocks, a co-founder of Northern Rockies Rising Tide, a climate change advocacy group in Missoula, Mont., which is also on the proposed route.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/business/energy-environment/22road.html?_r=1