Erik Stidham, attorney for ConocoPhillips, has begun his arguments. "They want to talk about things beyond the four permits," he said of the opponents of the four ConocoPhillips megaloads, things "that don't relate to four shipments traveling in the middle of the night with plenty of safety precautions to take care of repairs that need to be done in Billings."

He said at Conoco's Billings refinery, "There are coke drums in place that are near the end of their useful life." He asked, "Why the Port of Lewiston? It's by far the closest inland port to Billings, by a factor of thousands of miles."