ExxonMobil gives up on Highway 12 megaload route!

How sweet it is!

After months of fighting with environmental groups, ExxonMobil is giving up on plans to ship "megaloads" of oil field equipment across Lolo Pass, opting instead to ship all of the equipment on Interstate highways.

Monday's decision by ExxonMobil and Imperial marks a major development in the on-going fight over how the companies will get gear to the Tar Sands oil fields in Alberta.

LINK (Via: 8KPAX)

Congratulations to All Against the Haul, Fighting Goliath, David James Duncan, Rick Bass and the countless others who did the heavy lifting in the fight against ExxonMobile and their Highway 12 megaload plan.

Dicks of the Week - Montana Department of Transportation

The MDOT is going to fight a judge's ruling that blocks Exxon megaloads from travelling along scenic Highway 12. Since Exxon has already started downsizing some of the loads so they can travel on Interstate 90 and 15, something they originally said could not be done, why not just give up on the Highway 12 corridor?

LINK (Via: The Missoulian)

Judge puts halt to megaloads through Montana

A judge has upheld a request by Missoula County and three conservation groups to stop Imperial Oil/Exxon Mobil from transporting massive oilfield equipment modules through western Montana.

The judge says the transportation department violated the Montana Environmental Policy Act because it approved an insufficient environmental assessment.

LINK (Via: The Missoulian)

Wild and Scenic?

See you in court.

In an amended complaint, Idaho Rivers United has added the Federal Highway Administration to its suit against the U.S. Forest Service for allowing the Idaho Transportation Department to issue mega-load permits.

LINK (Via: The Boise Weekly)

Fighting Goliath

One of the big concerns of those opposing megaloads on Highway 12 was that the end result would be a permanent high load industrial corridor along one of the nations most scenic byways.

Now Weyerhauser wants to be next in line to haul giant equipment across U.S. Highway 12.

LINK (Via: The Boise Weekly)

In 2009 a report by megaload hauler Mammoet Transportation said opening a "high-load corridor" from Lewiston to Alberta, Canada would be a "game changer for Alberta's oil sands developers.

For a well balanced analysis of the megaloads issue read Alex Sakariassen's piece in the Missoula Independent.

"Obviously we apologize for any inconvenience that that might have caused."

Photo: KYLE MILLS/Lewiston Tribune

The megaload that a Canadian oil company says will validate its plan to send many more up U.S. Highway 12 in Idaho and Montana got off to a rough start.

The wide load hit a guy wire alongside the highway near Orofino, Idaho, early Tuesday, setting off a sequence of events that led to an hours-long power outage in some 1,300 area homes and businesses, and forcing a highway closure of some 60 minutes.

LINK (Via: The Missoulian)