Connelly: A gusher of oil money flows in 2 state elections

Oil refiners and developers of a proposed Vancouver, Washington, oil terminal have channeled more than $1 million into two elections: a Port of Vancouver commissioner contest and the 45th District state Senate race.

The latest figures, tracked faithfully by the Columbian newspaper of Vancouver, show backers of the Vancouver Energy rail port have given $370,000 to port candidate Kris Greene, who has made past statements backing the terminal, and Greene has benefited from $181,000 in in-kind contributions.

Port commission contests are often sleepy, but this one has featured a $122,000 media buy by a pro-port front, Enterprise Washington Jobs PAC, to which oil port developer Tesoro and the BNSF railway are major donors.

Big Oil is now up to $715,000 in "independent expenditures," channeled through Enterprise Washington, backing Republican Jinyoung Englund in the Eastside race that will decide control of the state Senate.

Enactment of a carbon tax, proposed by Gov. Jay Inslee but stalled in the Republican-run Senate, would be a top priority for the Democrats.

The latest donation is $165,000 from Tesoro, which operates an Anacortes refinery, on top of $100,000 given last summer. Phillips 66 recently gave $250,000, having donated $100,000 in late summer. Chevron has donated $100,000.

The carbon economy has been thwarted in big-ticket proposals for Northwest ports, from the Gateway Pacific coal terminal north of Bellingham -- vetoed by the Army Corps of Engineers -- to a now-defunct oil port proposed for Grays Harbor. It bit the dust after fierce opposition from Indian tribes and environmentalists.

The proposed Millennium bulk terminal, a big coal port to be located in Longview, was recently given a thumbs down by the state Department of Ecology. It would have brought coal from Wyoming and Montana down the Columbia River for export across the Pacific.

The proposed Vancouver Energy project would be the largest oil-by-rail terminal in America. It would receive up to four 1.5-mile-long oil trains a day. The oil, in turn, would be shipped down the Columbia River to West Coast refineries.

The $210 million project would have a capacity of 360,000 barrels a day. It is a joint project of Tesoro and Savage Energy, which have a 10-year lease at the site.

The project is currently before the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, whose findings will go to Gov. Jay Inslee.

Environmentalists furiously oppose the project. The Washington Conservation Voters has made an in-kind contribution of $290,000 to Don Orange, a port commission candidate who is critical of the oil port. The WWEC has already helped elect one commissioner opposed to the project.

The Port of Vancouver contest has become nasty. Repeated attempts have been made to keep Orange off the ballot on residency grounds. Greene has just sought a temporary restraining order against his former campaign consultant, Robert Sabo.

A half-century ago, Northwest ports fought to attract such projects as refineries and aluminum smelters. Now, however, the specter of lengthy oil trains moving through population centers, as well as global warming and the desire for non-industrial port uses, has generated sustained opposition.

Big Oil has kept a low profile, aside from giving to such friends as state Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, chairman of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee in Olympia, who has bottled up Gov. Jay Inslee's "green" proposals and defended the safety of oil trains. Two refineries sit in Ericksen's district. He has been moonlighting with the Trump EPA.

The lone exception came after the Legislature in 2010 almost passed a per-barrel tax on oil, designed to pay for spill cleanup and reduction of stormwater pollution in Puget Sound.

The refiners responded by spending $450,000 to help put a Tim Eyman initiative, requiring a two-thirds vote by each house of the Legislature to raise new taxes, on the ballot. The state Supreme Court eventually threw out Eyman's "supermajority" initiatives.

The stakes this year are high, leading to slugfests featuring oil companies and the Washington Conservation Voters.

The Republicans control our state Senate by one vote. They have 24 seats, and renegade Democrat Sen. Tim Sheldon votes with them. The Democrats hold 24 seats. If Democrat Manka Dhingra wins in the 45th (Kirkland, Redmond, Sammamish), the Dems will control Washington's upper legislative chamber for the first time in five years.

Oil companies are investing $715,000 -- and maybe more -- to see that it does not happen.