I,A and Someguy, this post and response are perfect to illustrate the absurdity of some peoples thought process. With all due respect Someguy, I'm guessing you're also against pipelines? Were you also one of the people who strongly contested the crude facility on the port that would handle vessel transfer? We all want to use the stuff that's brought in, but none of us are happy with the options to do it. We struck down the port deal, we protest pipelines, we shot down a tank farm expansion in the early 2000's, and we don't like it rolling in on rail.

Also, I'm really not sure you can argue that transporting and storing a consumable commodity isn't necessary. You interpret it as greed, probably because ideologically you align as anti-big business, but do you honestly know what the profit margins are and the cost of transporting those goods are? You say one could argue, but I'd seriously like you to make that argument without launching into green-technology rhetoric. The argument goes in circles. But lets be honest with eachother, this moment right now, there are millions of vehicles in the Portland Metro area that are consuming gasoline daily.
Set aside any feelings you have about the necessity to curb that consumption and admit what our current reality is. Our airplanes, our tugboats and crewboats, our visiting vessels, our trains, our busses and trucks, our cars, our lawnmowers and dirt bikes and generators, our tractors and industrial heavy equipment, they are all running on the fuels that are being brought in. Until ALL of those plus those things I failed to mention are migrated to cleaner fuel, green-technology, etc, there will be a continued need to import crude, gasoline, diesel, etc. Also, bare in mind that we are a PORT CITY, our imported supply also feeds neighboring communities that do not have the infrastructure.

Please make that argument, that all of that boils down to greed. Just because people make money doesn't necessarily imply parasitic business practices.