Nez Perce Fight Big Oil

A week ago, while eating breakfast in Kalispell, Montana and glancing through "The Missoulian" (the apparent newspaper of choice in Kalispell), when an article "Nez Perce: No big rigs across their reservation," caught my eye.

I'm ashamed to admit that my first thought was that the Nez Perce were probably "grabbing" on to some environmental issue simply because as Native Americans they wield considerable power.

As I read the article, however, I had to admit that they had a real issue, and in fact it appeared that most of the real "wielding of power" was coming from the other side in the form of some major muscle from, you guessed it, - BIG OIL.

The project is officially known as the Kearl Oil Sands Project and together with the Alberta Tar Sands, it has been called - "...possibly the largest industrial project in human history" (quite a statement).  

The Nez Perce make no attempt to hide the fact that their opposition is not only with the movement of oil field equipment through pristine areas designated as "wild and scenic," but also with the scope of the entire projects environmental impact.

Protagonists for the environment point that this type of mining discharges 3 times the CO2 gasses into the environment that conventional oil field operations do.

Essentially oil sands mining is akin to open pit mining that will have a devastating impact on the environment for years to come (the project is currently slated to continue for a minimum of 50 years).

In terms of the Nez Perce current issues with the project (the movement of oil rig equipment over Native American lands), there seems to be no question that have a very valid concern.

The size of the behemoth truck "rigs" to move the equipment is mind boggling.  They are said to be 12 times the size of a normal semi-truck, are 140-210 feet long, approximately 30 feet high, 25 feet wide and fully loaded will haul loads up to 140 tons (by other accounts - roughly 500,000 pounds!)

Exxon Mobil's current plan calls for them to move the monster sized loads over the winding two lane (32 feet wide) highway - AT NIGHT!  Incredibly believable!

They could of course, in all likelihood, move the needed equipment by using more conventional trucks, but that would jeopardize the sanctity of Exxon Mobil's sacred profits.

It seems that the Nez Perce have valid concerns and I wish them in their efforts.