OLYMPIA – Trains with crude oil coming through Spokane or crossing Washington elsewhere would need larger crews but those with other farm chemicals would not, under a revised bill passed by a House committee Monday.

The latest version of a bill on one of the session’s hottest topics – transporting oil from other states and Canada to refineries in Western Washington – also calls for higher taxes on the oil than the Senate Republicans approved early this month. Both versions would require shippers to notify the state Department of Ecology of their expected shipments for the upcoming week, but would only allow aggregated reports of the shipments to be made public at the end of each quarter.

A train carrying oil or some other hazardous materials would be required to  have three or more crew members, depending on the number of cars. The House Environment Committee approved an amendment from Rep. Matt Shea, R-Spokane Valley, to make sure farm chemicals like anhydrous ammonia were exempt from the higher crew standards and other provisions of the bill. Oil shippers would pay an 8 cent per barrel tax on crude oil, up from the previously proposed 4 cents per barrel, to help pay for oil spill response and cleanup. A barrel equals 42 gallons.

The bill now goes to the full House, where more changes are expected, and a final version that passes there would have to pass the Senate again with those changes.

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