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BP wants more tankers in Puget Sound waters Company: Cherry Point production will be cut 10% unless more tankers allowed; with more tankers, facility could be expanded The Associated Press
London-based energy group BP PLC has threatened a 10 percent production cut at its Cherry Point refinery near Bellingham, Wash., if a federal law restricting tanker traffic in Puget Sound is not repealed.
Ross Pillari, BP America’s chief executive, made the comment Nov. 9, a day after Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, quietly introduced legislation that would overturn an amendment the late Sen. Warren Magnuson, D-Wash., inserted into the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1977.
The so-called Magnuson Amendment reduced the risk of oil spills in Washington waters by limiting the number of oil tankers that could dock in the Puget Sound region.
About 600 tankers a year enter Washington state’s marine waters and Puget Sound, according to a 2004 report by the Washington Department of Ecology.
Critics of Stevens’ proposal argue that additional tanker traffic could increase the likelihood of oil spills in the sound. They also have warned that without the restriction Washington could become the center of oil production on the West Coast.
Stevens’ bill has been referred to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which he chairs. A similar move in the House was blocked last month after the state’s lawmakers objected.
Cantwell will fight Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is a member of the committee and has vowed to fight any effort to push the bill through the Senate.
“I will do everything in my power to prevent giveaways to big oil companies that will increase the risk of a major oil spill in our precious Puget Sound,” Cantwell said Nov. 9. “Profits are at an all-time high for oil companies, but now they want to jeopardize Puget Sound so they can ship more gasoline to foreign markets to make even more money.”
In introducing his measure, Stevens said Magnuson’s tanker provision “unduly restricts our ability to get states on the West Coast the petroleum supplies they need.”
Stevens blamed skyrocketing energy costs on increased demand and what he called “misguided policies” that block construction of refineries or expansion of existing ones.
The Cherry Point refinery in Whatcom County is one of five in Washington that produce a combined 25.9 million gallons of refined products daily. BP could expand facility BP’s Pillari said that if the tanker restriction were lifted, the company would consider expanding the Cherry Point facility.
Pillari was one of five oil company chief executives who testified Nov. 9 during a joint hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Under occasionally hostile questioning, the CEOs denied that the oil industry was reaping windfall profits and argued that price gouging was not responsible for record earnings in the wake of Gulf Coast hurricanes.
But even as Pillari and the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips and Shell Oil Co. testified they were not engaging in price gouging, Cantwell suggested the companies were manipulating supplies to drive up gasoline prices even further.
“Why do we have five refineries in Washington state and have among the highest gasoline prices in the nation?” Cantwell asked after the hearing.
Cantwell said she was convinced the oil companies were gaming the petroleum markets just as Enron gamed the electricity market and dramatically drove up energy prices on the West Coast several years ago.
“Profits are at an all-time high for oil companies,” she said, “but now they want to jeopardize the Puget Sound so they can ship more gasoline to foreign markets to make another buck.”
Stevens said he’s trying to overturn an “outdated an unfair law that results in limited supplies to other regions.”
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