Port of Vancouver USA board votes to kill lease for proposed oil export terminal

The board voted 3-0 to give notice to developer Vancouver Energy that its project needs to receive all necessary licenses, permits and approvals required to operate by March 31, or the lease will be terminated.    The Port of Vancouver USA is on the verge of killing a proposed project that would have potentially brought hundreds of thousands of crude oil to the port daily for export to refineries on the U.S. West Coast.
   The Port of Vancouver USA Board of Commissioners voted 3-0 on Jan. 9 to provide notice to developer Vancouver Energy that its project needs to receive all necessary licenses, permits and approvals required to operate by March 31, or the lease will be terminated, per a lease amendment the board approved in April 2016.
   Licenses, permits and approvals is one of the conditions precedent on which the lease was extended last April. Since then, the lease has extended automatically every three months. The Jan. 9 vote came after Commission President Eric LaBrant made a motion to direct CEO Julianna Marler to provide notice that the port elects to negate and nullify the next extension period.
   The Vancouver Energy project is a joint venture between Andeavor (formerly Tesoro Corp.) and Savage Companies. The project proposed to bring up to 360,000 barrels of North American crude oil by rail to the port daily.
   Tesoro – a port tenant since 1985 – and Savage have proposed leasing 42 acres at the port for a crude oil distribution facility that would include a rail unloading facility, storage tanks, and a vessel loading area. The project would bring up to 360,000 barrels of North American crude oil by rail to the port daily, where it would then be loaded into U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged, and U.S.-staffed marine vessels for shipment to refineries in Alaska, California and Washington.
   The project has been under review by the Washington state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) since August 2013. On Dec. 19, 2017, the Council issued a recommendation to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to disapprove the project. Under the EFSEC process, the Governor has final say over approval of energy projects.