West Coast communities foresee an end to fossil fuels. Can they make the industry pay up before it’s too late?

Oregon, Washington, and California trying to insure communities against devastating potential oil spills — and recoup damages already inflicted

In Portland, Oregon, close to the city’s downtown, the banks of the Willamette River are lined by a six-mile, 60-year-old oil tank farm that stores the vast majority of the state’s liquid fuels. It’s critical infrastructure. And it’s a massive potential hazard.

Earlier this month a study, conducted by Multnomah County and the City of Portland, found that an earthquake in the Cascadia subduction zone could trigger the some 200 million gallons of fuel to pour into the Willamette — a devastating spill that would rival BP Deepwater Horizon in scale.

The report also estimated that it would cost at least $2.6 billion in damages and would likely be “many multiples of the monetized amount”.