Advisory Vote No 19

Advisory Vote No. 19
Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill 6269

The legislature expanded, without a vote of the people, the oil spill response and administration taxes to crude
oil or petroleum products received by pipeline, costing $13,000,000 over ten years for government spending.

This tax increase should be:
Repealed
Maintained

To start, you need to remember that this measure has already been passed into law, and the entire advisory vote is an expensive charade forced on us by yet another Tim Eyman initiative. The negative language is required by that Eyman initiative, and the “costing $13 mil for government spending” translates to: “will bring in $13 mil over 10 years.” And its completely advisory. It has no weight of law. But at least we can let the legislature and the Dept of Ecology know that we support oil spill prevention and cleanup.

This bill was introduced at the request of the Dept of Ecology. Its title is Strengthening Oil Transportation Safety.

In 1990 the legislature passed legislation which created the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Program. You may remember the concerns about super tankers threading their way among the rocks and shoals of the San Juans. The legislation put the responsibility for this program on Ecology.  The program requires oil spill prevention plans, contingency response plans, and documentation of financial responsibility for vessels and facilities which may discharge oil into navigable waters.

Ecology’s responsibility covers railroads, oil refineries, pipelines, and vessel operators. The report (6269-S2/E SBR FBR 19.pdf) goes into all the gory details of the plans. Bottom line: all those facilities must submit their various plans to Ecology for review and approval. There is an oil spill response tax of  $0.01/barrel to fund the state’s response to spills whose cleanup cost exceeds $50k. When the oil spill response account hits $9 mil the tax is suspended. There is a credit against the oil spill account for any crude or petroleum sold for export. The bottom line here is that the tax is tiny, downright infinitesimal, compared to what it would likely cost to clean up a spill in the Salish Sea.

Ecology has become concerned that the diluted bitumen (‘dilbit”) which is coming out of Alberta and North Dakota acts very differently from the fuels which were the subject of the earlier reviews. The existing response plans just plain don’t take account of this new material.

There is something called the Northwest Area Contingency Plan to coordinate federal, state, tribal, local, and international response to oil and hazardous substance “incidents.”  Ecology needs to update its contingency plans and rules to account for the new “dilbit” material by the end of 2019. Part of that process is setting up equipment and training responders.

Every 3 years Ecology must require at least one joint large-scale multiple participant equipment deployment drill of onshore and offshore facilities and vessels to determine the adequacy of compliance by owners and operators.

Ecology, in consultation with the Puget Sound Partnership and the Pilotage Commission must complete a report on vessel traffic and safety in the Salish Sea. There are a lot of requirements which I will not copy. The preliminary report is due to the legislature November 1, 2018 and the final report is due June 30, 2019. By July 1, 2020 Ecology must report to the legislature on what activities are not expected to be continued, recommendations for potential funding sources, and a forecast of future funding needs.

The first $200k each year is allocated to the National Guard for oil spill and cleanup training.

This went into effect 4-1-18.

So, what we have is a minuscule tax of $0.01/barrel of oil to deal with painfully predictable spills of fossil fuels into our waters. We already know that the producers and shippers of that oil immediately point fingers and fail to do what’s necessary to prevent further damage. So the state has reasonably stepped in to create a program to minimize that damage. We also know that $9 mil is basically just about enough to buy coffee for the responders and not much more. What we can say is that, small as it is, it’s a start in the right direction.

Even though technically it doesn’t matter, I will be voting MAINTAINED.