Fri., Jan. 27, 2017
Years of litigation over giant megaloads of industrial equipment that had been proposed to travel on scenic Highway 12 through north-central Idaho, along the Clearwater and Lochsa river corridors, has ended today with a settlement that bans future megaloads, but continues to allow, on a...
Mon., Nov. 21, 2016
The Idaho Transportation Board has unanimously adopted new rules for megaloads on scenic Highway 12 in north-central Idaho, though a federal court injunction against such loads remains in effect and court-ordered mediation still is under way. The new Idaho Transportation Department rules, which the board...
Thu., Sept. 29, 2016
The Nez Perce Tribe has issued a statement sharply critical of the Idaho Transportation Department’s proposed rulemaking on megaloads in the scenic Highway 12 corridor in North-Central Idaho, saying the move was inappropriate, mediation is ongoing as part of a lawsuit that banned such shipments...
Thu., Sept. 8, 2016
Three years after a court ruling blocked pending “megaload” shipments from using the scenic U.S. Highway 12 river corridor in north-central Idaho, the Idaho Transportation Department is looking to update its rules governing such oversized shipments, the...
Mon., Aug. 11, 2014
Catching up from the past week’s news while I was gone: There was a major development in the race for state Superintendent of Schools, as the Idaho Association of School Administrators invited both candidates to speak and answer questions at a high-profile forum at its...
Wed., April 9, 2014
Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Rivers United and the Nez Perce Tribe are in mediation with the U.S. Forest Service to end a lawsuit concerning megaloads on U.S. Highway 12 in northern Idaho. Kevin Lewis of Idaho...
Tue., March 18, 2014
A New Yorker article out today on the saga of the Highway 12 megaloads in Idaho, headlined, “Another Oil-Sands Challenge: Transporting Equipment,” has an interesting note in it: Writer Michael Ames reports that Imperial Oil, the Exxon-Mobil affiliate that unsuccessfully sought to move 200-plus megaloads...
Thu., Dec. 19, 2013
At the east end of Coeur d’Alene, bald eagles swoop and dive over the lake as excited onlookers snap pictures or watch with spotting scopes, and others stroll by on the Centennial Trail with their dogs, enjoying the winter wildlife show. This is where a...
Wed., Dec. 18, 2013
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A 450-ton shipment of oilfield equipment that's been rumbling toward Idaho for days should enter the state sometime Thursday night or Friday morning. The "megaload," bound for the Canadian tar sands oil development,...
Tue., Dec. 17, 2013
The Idaho Transportation Department today is correcting some information it gave out yesterday regarding three giant megaloads that are proposed to travel through Coeur d’Alene on I-90 within the next month: The loads are headed for a refinery in Great Falls, Mont., as part of...
Mon., Dec. 16, 2013
The Idaho Transportation Department is inviting the public to a meeting Thursday in Coeur d’Alene to discuss on-ramp widening and brief, temporary closures of I-90 at Sherman Avenue that are planned to allow three megaloads of oil field equipment bound for Canada to pass through....
Mon., Dec. 16, 2013
A 450-ton shipment of equipment bound for the Canadian oil sands is slowly making its way across eastern Oregon, and is expected to be near the Idaho border on Wednesday, the Ontario Argus Observer reports. The shipment, so large that it creates a rolling roadblock...
Tue., Dec. 3, 2013
A transport rig carrying a 450-ton piece of equipment bound for the Canadian oil sands left a northeast Oregon port on Monday night, the AP reports, a day after protesters halted its earlier planned departure on Sunday, resulting in two arrests. The water purification equipment...
Mon., Dec. 2, 2013
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: UMATILLA, Ore. (AP) — Protesters blocked the departure of an oil refinery megaload Sunday night at the Port of Umatilla. The East Oregonian reports (http://bit.ly/IAGuWa) two protesters were arrested after they locked themselves to the truck. It...
Tue., Nov. 26, 2013
The start of a megaload shipment of oil refinery equipment through Eastern Oregon has been put off until Sunday, the AP reports, and objections have been raised in Eastern Oregon that the state didn't do enough to notify tribal and local government officials. The shipment...
Thu., Nov. 21, 2013
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A company hired by a subsidiary of General Electric to ship massive oil refinery equipment to the tar sands project in Canada is now seeking to haul the oversized loads across eastern Oregon...
Fri., Oct. 25, 2013
Here's a news item from the Associated Press: LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — A General Electric Co. subsidiary has given up its legal fight to haul the second of two huge loads of water purification equipment through the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest and will find another...
Wed., Oct. 16, 2013
Late yesterday afternoon, the Idaho Transportation Department announced four oversized loads from Omega Morgan would travel up Highway 95 from Lewiston to Coeur d’Alene, starting last night at 9:30, en route to I-90 to Montana. “Each shipment is 20.1 feet wide, 15.6 feet tall, 75...
Thu., Oct. 10, 2013
A federal judge has denied motions from both a division of General Electric and the U.S. Forest Service to lift a ban on megaload shipments across a scenic stretch of U.S. Highway 12 in north-central Idaho. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill rejected arguments from...
Wed., Sept. 18, 2013
The U.S. Forest Service has issued a closure order barring megaloads from Highway 12 through the Lochsa-Clearwater Wild and Scenic Rivers corridor in north-central Idaho, pursuant to a federal judge's ruling; you can see the order here. In a statement, the Forest Service said the...
Fri., Sept. 13, 2013
The U.S. Forest Service has issued the following statement in response to U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill's ruling today halting megaloads on scenic Highway 12 in North Idaho: “In compliance with the Judge’s order, the Forest Service is preparing a closure order for mega-loads traveling...
Fri., Sept. 13, 2013
Idaho Rivers United, the Idaho conservation group that joined the Nez Perce Tribe in suing to block megaload transports on scenic Highway 12 in north-central Idaho, called a federal judge’s ruling today in the case “a win for all who cherish the esthetic, spiritual and...
Fri., Sept. 13, 2013
A subsidiary of General Electric that hoped to ship a second giant megaload over scenic U.S. Highway 12 in North Idaho next week in route to the Canadian oil sands said today it was “disappointed” with a judge’s order blocking its shipment, and defended its...
Fri., Sept. 13, 2013
Silas Whitman, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, issued a statement today applauding a federal judge’s ruling ordering the Forest Service to halt megaload transports across scenic Highway 12 in central Idaho until it’s completed a corridor study and consulted with the Nez...
Fri., Sept. 13, 2013
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill has ruled in favor of the Nez Perce Tribe and Idaho Rivers United, ordering an injunction blocking further megaload transports on scenic U.S. Highway 12 until a corridor study and consultation with the tribe have been completed by the...
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
