PORT ANGELES — The Magnuson Amendment prohibiting the largest supertankers in Puget Sound is facing a test in the U.S. House of Representatives.
If the amendment is struck down, North Olympic Peninsula communities could see larger tankers plying the waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca headed to refineries in Puget Sound.
And the increased chance of a large oil spill has environmental groups worried.
An amendment to a federal energy bill called the Gasoline for America’s Security Act will be heard by the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday. It would reverse the 28-year-old law named for late U.S. Sen. Warren Magnuson, D-Seattle.
The law limits the size of oil tankers headed to refineries at Anacortes and Cherry Point near Bellingham to 125,000 dead weight tons.
The Magnuson Amendment is about limiting the risk of oil spills and not about limiting the capacity of oil refineries, said Fred Felleman, northwest director for Ocean Advocates.
Felleman said when ARCO built an oil refinery at Cherry Point now owned by BP Amoco PLC, formerly British Petroleum, its capacity was 96,000 barrels per day.
But the refinery has more than doubled its capacity to 220,000 barrels per day by getting oil via a pipeline from Alberta, he said.
“Even with the Magnuson Amendment and the lawsuit filed by Ocean Advocates, BP has more than doubled the refinery’s capacity,” Felleman said.
George Beehan, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, said Dicks will try removing the language affecting the Magnuson Amendment before the energy bill comes up for a vote on Friday.
