Oil Train 2

Under the Phillips 66 revised proposal, three trains per week—each with 80 cars carrying over 53,000 barrels of crude oil—could travel by rail through the county. The original proposal called for up to five trains per week. 

 Nic Coury

Hundreds of activists from across the state flooded to San Luis Obispo Feb. 4-5 to speak their minds about the proposed Phillips 66 rail spur project in south San Luis Obispo County.

If approved, the project would allow for up to 150 80-car trains filled with crude oil to pass through Monterey County—and elsewhere in the state—annually. 

At the SLO County Planning Commission hearing that began Feb. 4, more than 250 people spoke during public comment, the overwhelming majority of which expressed opposition to the project.  

Of the 437 people that signed up to speak, many didn't have the chance during the two-day period so the Planning Commission continued the hearing to Feb. 25. If the remaining speakers don't finish in that day, SLO county staff indicated the meeting may get continued another time to March 11.

Laurance Shinderman, a spokesman for Mesa Refinery Watch, a nearby activist group that formed in the wake of the proposal, called the public's comments—as well as the anti-oil train protests outside county offices—an "outstanding success."

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