State transportation grants should discriminate against oil, coal rail projects: Guest opinion

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Train cars containing coal roll into an unloading facility at Dominion Terminal Associates' coal terminal in Newport News, Va.

By Catherine Mater

News coverage of issues involving coal and oil shipments in Oregon now occurs daily. The July 2014 Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) six-hour public hearing on ConnectOregon project funding (using public lottery dollars) was a harbinger of future challenges in Oregon transportation policy with regard to oil and coal.

Proponents of coal and oil transport projects seeking ConnectOregon funding argue the importance of job generation these projects bring — especially critical to rural areas of the state where rail and waterway services exist. Oil and coal companies partnering with local entities (like ports) offer up to 50 percent project financing, with the remaining 50 percent project costs to be funded by public dollars.

These companies also bring financial support to communities where the projects are located and are understandably viewed as a welcome reprieve from hard-hitting economic downturns. Proponents argue that public funding decisions should be "commodity agnostic," with a focus on job generation as the primary baseline for decision. Opponents argue the many environmental, health and safety problems associated with the mining and transport of these non-Oregon, nonrenewable resources through our state, positing that public funding for such projects is simply wrong.

This commodity-agnostic debate is new for the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the OTC. While not a regulatory agency, ODOT (through its commission) must shape a well-balanced policy leadership role in this arena. Economic benefits will continue to be central in transportation policy direction, belying reliance on "commodity agnostic" thinking. Aside from the significant environmental impacts oil and coal companies present, using Oregon as a transport route for these products is expected to impact the states' agriculture and wood products industries, both of which rely on rail transport to move product.

Nationally the statistics are sobering: a loss of over $100 million annually per state in the agriculture sector resulting from more than two-week product shipment delays due to oil and coal shipment priority. Rail car prices are also likely to be affected, following national trends which have seen significant price increases resulting from coal and oil business demand (from $700/car to $6,000/car). Amtrak passenger rail schedules nationally have been affected by delays caused by coal and oil train shipments as well, with trip delays increasing to 60 percent in the last year.

The private sector, not the public sector, will orchestrate these push-pull transportation market conditions impacting Oregon industries. But the use of public funds to facilitate these competing industry conflicts while benefiting commodities which foster environmental degradation is a transportation policy issue that lands squarely on the OTC plate. It is a policy discussion that cannot be pushed off to the future. Oil shipments per week along the Columbia River alone are expected to increase sixfold — from 12 trains per week to 72 trains per week. Like coal's future in energy production, commodity-agnostic thinking in transportation policy development and project funding is outdated. Oregonians are proud of ODOTs' exceptional track record as a national leader in advancing 21st century thinking and technology use in public infrastructure design and construction. They deserve no less in public transportation policy development and innovation.

Catherine Mater, president of Mater Engineering, is chair of the Oregon Transportation Commission and a senior fellow at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation.

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