PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – As the environmental fallout from a derailment in Ohio continues, organizers in Portland defend the city’s transit regulations that Montana’s attorney general said violate the U.S. Constitution in a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Lynn Handlin, an organizer with Extinction Rebellion PDX, said she sympathizes with residents in Ohio experiencing what reminds her of an oil train derailment in Oregon six years ago.

“It’s awful, I feel so bad for the people that were there,” Handlin said. “The Mosier derailment happened and it was pretty horrible.”

That year, Portland put in regulations banning the expansion of oil and fuel storage facilities in the city, only keeping room available for what the city and airport use.

But those regulations now face a lawsuit from the State of Montana and extraction industry groups that argues those Portland laws violate interstate commerce.

“I couldn’t imagine a worse time for the fossil fuel industry and the State of Montana to file a lawsuit like that,” said Nick Caleb, Breach Alliance climate and energy attorney.

Portland is positioned in the middle of oil and fuel transit in the Pacific Northwest – with a pipeline that sends oil to refineries in Seattle and to ships that send fuel out internationally or intake it for domestic use.

That means oil trains come through Portland, and oil is stored mainly in a facility right off the Willamette River. Portland’s regulations limit expansion because it sits on soil that studies have shown will deteriorate in a large-scale earthquake – likely spilling all the oil into the river.

But industry groups filing the lawsuit claim that those regulations unconstitutionally restrict international and interstate commerce – and claim they don’t meet Portland’s emission reduction goals.

“To flat out say we are only going to store and use this much oil and natural gas and no more because it would be exported overseas or sent down to California…that is the definition of interfering with interstate commerce,” Kathleen Sgamma, president of Western Energy Alliance, said.

But these rules hold up in Oregon State Court: Portland has renewed the rule twice since 2016. It’s been challenged in court as many times too. 

Caleb said the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that attempting to mitigate risk of a huge catastrophe comes with burdens on out-of-state commerce

“It’s okay, as long as you have a legitimate purpose,” Caleb said.

However, the City of Portland told KOIN 6 News they don’t comment on pending lawsuits.