wanting to site a petroleum-related facility has been required to get a 

 permit from the Site Evaluation Council. The Council is comprised of 14 

 members, many of which are heads of other state agencies including the 

 Director of the State Energy Office who acts as chairman of the Council. 

 Washington State has 'substantial authority and expertise to manage 

 onshore and coastal impacts resulting from OCS development. The state 

 has been a leader in environmental legislation and was the first state 

 in the nation to complete a federally approved coastal zone management 

 program. Further, Washington has had experience since the 1950' s 

 regulating oil and gas facilities. In recent years, both the Governor 

 and the state legislature have been willing to impose controversial 

 regulations on the oil industry. The latest such action involved the 

 banning of supertankers over 125,000 tons in Puget Sound, a law which is 

 currently being contested in the courts. 



5.3.4 Alaskan Oil 



Alaska may soon become the foremost petroleum producing state in the 

 United States. The USGS has estimated total recoverable petroleum resources 

 in Alaska, both onshore and offshore, at from 28.3 to 65.3 billion barrels 

 of oil and from 75.6 to 178.7 trillion cubic feet of gas. 10 If these 

 resources are developed, large amounts of petroleum will have to be 

 transported from Alaska to consumer markets in the lower 48. Much of 

 this oil will come in tankers traveling from Valdez to west coast ports. 



Development of onshore and offshore Alaskan petroleum resources 

 will have important implications for Washington State. Ports located on 

 Puget Sound in western Washington are considered by the oil industry to 

 be prime candidates for receiving large amounts of Alaskan oil by tanker 



87 



