Looks like Crude by rail in Grays Harbor is going to be a distant memory.

http://www.kxro.com/company-planning-crude-project-terminates-lease/

To some, me included will find this as a victory.

I sit on a county committee with one of the locals spearheading the anti-oil train campaign, and he is always careful when reporting these apparent victories to point out where language still exists that could very quickly put crude by rail back on the tracks. This is encouraging news (if you are anti-crude by rail in Grays Harbor), but the potential is still very much there for these projects.

In my jaded view, the only reason progress has been halted on these projects is that all the fracking we have been doing domestically has flooded the world market, driving prices back to levels we've not seen in 10 years. We'll see how well the supply holds up now that our government has removed restrictions on foreign export. My guess is that increased demand from foreign markets will reduce supply and drive prices back up before long. If that happens, these projects will be online again in short order. Needless to say, I hope I'm completely wrong.

.

One outfit revising its permit application to delete crude.

The other opting out of its lease.

It's good news anyway you look at it.

Agreed. Now, let's have some sort of less nefarious shipping project buy up that lease and bring some long-term jobs to the area without putting our precious natural resources at risk!

According to the local article this past weekend...

http://thedailyworld.com/news/local/grays-harbor-rail-terminal-opts-out-option-lease-agreement-port

Westway is the only remaining contender with an active permit application to bring crude to Hoquiam... five 8 million gallon storage tanks. Final EIS for that project is due in September.