Thanks to Breach Collective’s research and images below, we can tell what’s in the oil trains, often with 100 cars or more rolling through the Columbia River Gorge, Portland neighborhoods, and the CEI Hub on the Willamette River, to the Zenith Energy transshipment facility. Thanks to Commissioner Dan Ryan for making a secret deal with Houston-based Zenith a mere two days before the Oregon Supreme Court would have denied (by refusing to hear it) Zenith’s third and final appeal, those trains are still a danger to public health and safety — for how much longer?
Trainspotters, here you go!
These trains aren’t as shiny as they were in 2019 when XRPDX planted a garden on Zenith’s train tracks. But their fuel loads are still just as dangerous to the environment and the climate.
Reminder: renewable fuels, like “conventional,” can spill, explode and burn. The Portland Fire Department is not prepared to fight a huge oil fire, and hoping it won’t happen is not a plan.
None of this gasoline is sold in Portland, for whatever dubious benefit we might get.
Bakken crude is produced by fracking in the extraction sites of North Dakota. It’s sparky, full of “light end” hydrocarbons such as methane and butane, whose vapors can form explosive mixtures with the air, travel to the source of ignition, and flash back. BOOM!
Zenith Energy is a danger to our city and region. Shut Down Zenith!
