Idaho hearing officer recommends agency allow ConocoPhillips oversize load shipments.

An Idaho administrative hearings officer has handed oil gain ConocoPhillips a win in the ongoing battle over whether gargantuan over-sized loads should be allowed to move on Highway 12 from Lewiston to Lolo Pass.
“It is the decision and recommendation of the Hearing Officer that the appeal of the Intervenors should be denied,” writes Hearing Officer Merlyn
Clark in a recommendation written for the Idaho Transportation Department. The intervenors are 13 Idaho residents and small business owners (including Center for Justice board member Peter Grubb) who oppose the transports along the Northwest Passage scenic byway portion of U.S. Highway 12 through the Clearwater and Lochsa river canyons. Although the intervenors succeeded in getting an Idaho judge to block the shipments in August, that decision was reversed by the Idaho Supreme Court in early November. The state supreme court ruling effectively kicked the controversy into the hands of the Transportation Department and its hearing process.
“It is further the decision and recommendation of the Hearing Officer,” Clark’s decision continued, “that ITD should issue the overlegal permits to allow Petitioners [ConocoPhillips] to transport four oversize loads of equipment from Lewiston, Idaho to the Montana border over U.S. Highway 12 as provided in the August Memorandum of Decision and the Updated Memorandum of Decision, and as specified in the Permits.
Although opponents of the shipments have a right to seek reconsideration, Clark’s decision appears to clear the way for the four ConocoPhillips shipments in Idaho. The Idaho residents fighting the loads warn that these shipments would be the first of hundreds of similar sized shipments out of the Port of Lewiston. The shipments are so large they would take up both lanes of Highway 12.