National Week of Action

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Hundreds Mobilize on Willamette River to Demand an End to Zenith Oil and the ‘Era of Fossil Fuels’ 

As part of a national week of action, Portland community members draw attention to the expansion of local fossil fuel infrastructure amidst a climate emergency.

June 11, 2023 (Portland, Ore.)—Today, hundreds of activists took to the water to protest the City of Portland allowing Zenith Energy to pollute the air and put communities in danger by running oil-by-rail trains through Portland. Portland City Council can overturn the Land Use Compatibility Statement they granted for Zenith from the fall of 2022 and align with the climate goals they promised their community. This event is a part of the ‘End the Era of Fossil Fuels’ National Week of Action, featuring over 1,200 groups across the country with dozens of events calling on President Biden to declare a climate emergency. 

Kate Murphy, Community Organizer with Columbia Riverkeeper said: “We need solutions that result in a significant reduction of harm for our communities. Making a deal with the very industry that has knowingly caused devastating harm for decades and calling it progress is reckless. Zenith is fighting for profits. We are fighting for a livable future and we expect our elected officials to have the courage to join us in prioritizing the health and safety of our communities over the interests of the fossil fuel industry.”

Eloise Navarro, National Fossil Fuel Organizer with 350PDX said:

“Our battle against Zenith Energy and the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub is just one unique piece in a mosaic of national and international fossil fuel resistance fights. Though the Biden Administration has no authority over this local fight, there is a national spotlight on Portland at this very moment, and folks around the country want to know whether our elected officials will stand with the people of Portland and Oregon, or whether they will side with the collapsing fossil fuel industry. We are showing up for this week of action in solidarity with other activists, organizers, and community members across the country who are demanding necessary climate action within their towns, cities, and states. These activists around the country also stand in solidarity with us in Portland. Together, we have the power not just to change our local systems for the better, but to uproot the fossil fuel industry's national monopoly of our climate, health, and wellbeing.”

Zenith Energy is a Houston-based oil company that operates a terminal in NW Portland in the Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub. In 2017, Zenith quietly started receiving tar sands and crude oil on mile-long trains from Canada and North Dakota. Since then, Zenith has continued to increase storage and transport of dangerous and flammable fuels, including crude oil. Zenith has demonstrated it cannot be trusted by repeatedly misleading regulators, elected officials, and the public, while incurring multiple violations along the way.

After initially denying the Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS) to the oil company in 2021, the City then went back on its decision and granted the permit, without any Tribal engagement or consultation, and in opposition to the demands of 46 neighborhood associations, Multnomah County, 20 state legislators, 17 environmental and community organizations, and thousands of Portland residents who all expressed concern over Zenith Energy and originally urged the City to deny this permit.

Tyler Houghton, an organizer with Mosquito Fleet said:

“These promises from leaders that are supposed to protect the climate and our community’s public health, have never been promises to the People. Indigenous Nations, Frontline Communities, and climate scientists around the world have been abundantly clear – we cannot avoid the very worst impacts of the climate crisis, if the US government is allowed to continue fast-tracking perpetual fossil fuel dependency. Political leaders know this, yet many so-called leaders, bought and paid for by fossil fuel companies, side with the same fossil fuel corporations time and again. We ask, how much worse do conditions need to become, how many lives and cultures lost by fires and rising oceans, for these leaders to take action? It’s time to dismantle the American culture of normalizing climate chaos.”

Thousands of Portland residents live inside the ‘blast zone’, or the area most at risk in the event of an oil train derailment and explosion. The US Department of Transportation has designated the 0.5 mile area surrounding train tracks as an evacuation zone for oil train derailments, and the 1 mile area as a potential impact zone in the case of oil train fires. The oil inside railcars is highly pressurized, and recent history teaches us that trains can derail and explode, causing dangerous repercussions to our local communities, our health and safety, and our environment. From Lac-Mégantic, Quebec in 2013, Mosier, Oregon in 2016, and most recently in East Palestine, Ohio in February 2023 (not oil, but still a dangerous train explosion) — derailments unfortunately have occurred and will continue to, since transporting explosive, chemical-laden fossil fuels at high speeds will always be inherently dangerous. 

Samantha Hernandez, Climate Justice Organizer with Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility said:

“So many Portlanders live in the blast zone of Zenith oil trains. It’s irresponsible for elected officials in the city council to treat neighborhoods like sacrifice zones. After seeing the tragic (and preventable) train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio earlier this year, I’ve become more and more concerned and disappointed about the lack of action to protect me and my neighbors from Zenith’s oil trains.”

To make matters worse, Zenith’s facilities are located within the Cascadia earthquake subduction zone, meaning the unstable soils are subject to liquefaction and lateral spreading in an earthquake.  The CEI Hub was built before there was understanding about this region’s earthquake risk from the Cascadia Subduction Zone. A 2022 report on the CEI Hub, funded by the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management and Multnomah County Office of Sustainability, states that 91% of the storage tanks were built before seismic standards were adopted, and some of the tanks are 100 years old. In an earthquake, what seems like solid ground will liquify and tanks may rupture releasing as many as 193 million gallons. Fuel and toxic substances would go into the air, water, and soil, harming wildlife and polluting our environment for decades. The loss of human life and serious health effects are included in predictions for a CEI Hub disaster scenario. Death and serious health effects are possible. In addition to the public health, public safety and environmental risks, the lack of stored fuel would have detrimental ripple effects throughout the Oregon state economy.

Zenith, along with other corporations at the CEI Hub, aren’t required to make their tanks meet earthquake safety standards, nor are they responsible for the risks they pose to human life and safety. 

Oregon state representative Khanh Pham, who spoke at the event from a boat on the water said:

“Zenith’s Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub expansion will put hundreds of thousands of Oregonians at risk in the event of the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and any toxic oil spill that would likely ensue. We must do everything in our power to stop both the threat of train explosions and oil spills in our community as well as stopping the expansion of fossil fuels. Bold action is necessary to ensure a livable future for all.”