Opinion
A4
Saturday, April 2, 2022
OUR VIEW
Closed doors
disfavor the
Oregon public
hen President Biden gave his State of
the Union speech earlier this month,
one part stung.
“If you travel 20 miles east of Columbus, Ohio,
you’ll fi nd 1,000 empty acres of land,” Biden
said. “It won’t look like much, but if you stop and
look closely, you’ll see a ‘Field of Dreams,’ the
ground on which America’s future will be built.
This is where Intel, the American company that
helped build Silicon Valley, is going to build its
$20 billion semiconductor mega site. Up to eight
state-of-the-art factories in one place, 10,000 new
good-paying jobs.”
We know that’s a long quote. That’s what made
it sting all the more. Intel chose Ohio for that
$20 billion investment. Not Oregon. Gov. Kate
Brown had made courting Intel expansion a pri-
ority. Intel went to Ohio.
Congratulations, Ohio.
Oregon offi cials — government and busi-
ness — responded. A chip industry task force
was formed and staff ed by the Oregon Business
Council. The co-chairs are Gov. Brown, Sen. Ron
Wyden and Portland General Electric CEO Maria
Pope. There are a lot more big names in govern-
ment and in business on that task force. It met
recently with one of Intel’s top executives. That’s
an eff ort to develop a road map to bring more
semiconductor manufacturing and research to the
state, according to reporting by The Oregonian.
We appreciate the Oregon Business Council’s
work in making this happen. It needs to get done.
But here’s something else that stings. These
meetings are being held behind closed doors.
Critical decisions that will form the basis for
policy in Oregon are being discussed behind
those closed doors. What trade-off s or promises
are being considered? Which ones are passed
over and why? Are they considering exceptions to
state land use law?
There are reasons to believe these meetings are
under no legal obligation to be open to the public.
The task force wasn’t created by a government
entity. It doesn’t have the authority to create laws
or regulations.
There’s also, though, the intent of the require-
ment for public meetings in Oregon. It’s not only
for Oregonians to be able to witness fi nal deci-
sions. It’s also to be able to witness the making
of policy, the things leading up to decisions. That
can tell you important things about elected offi -
cials, too. Oregon government bodies even fi nd
ways to hold executive sessions to discuss propri-
etary business matters and pivot to open sessions
to have policy discussions. Gov. Brown’s offi ce
pointed out any policy that originated from the
discussions would go through a public process.
And Wyden’s offi ce said he would ensure there
would be a public report from the task force.
They both mentioned proprietary information.
Behind closed doors, there could be frank dis-
cussions about what Intel needed without putting
Oregon at a disadvantage competing with other
states.
We understand that point. It’s not completely
true, though. Intel can go from state to state,
having proprietary discussions with state leaders
behind closed doors, and know what states might
do to lure its billions. It’s Intel that is the one not
at a disadvantage. It’s the Oregon public that
certainly is.
W
Choose forest protection over biomass energy
MARINA
RICHIE
OTHER VIEWS
t’s no secret that the peaks and
rivers of Northeastern Oregon
are magnifi cent, but there is a
lesser-known wonder. This corner
of the state is poised to weather cli-
mate instability better than most
other places. Why? There are still
intact forest headwaters holding and
fi ltering waters — vital to fi sh and
farmer alike. The remaining big
trees and ancient groves are storing
tons of carbon dioxide, and shel-
tering both wildlife and the human
spirit, too.
That’s why we must choose pro-
tection of our mature and ancient
forests over false promises of bio-
mass — the burning of trees as
“renewable energy.” Biomass
burning power plants emit 150% the
carbon dioxide of coal, and 300%-
400% of the carbon dioxide of nat-
ural gas, per unit energy produced.
The “renewable” argument goes
this way — trees grow back and
will then once again store carbon.
But trees burned today release
carbon dioxide today — and seed-
lings take a long time to grow and
cannot come close to rivaling the
carbon storage of trees that are
even 30 years old, let alone a cen-
tury or more. Scientifi c studies are
conclusive that the older and bigger
trees store far more carbon and for
I
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longer than young trees.
I am mystifi ed why biomass
energy is taking off in Northeastern
Oregon with a heavy reliance on
subsidies — it’s not cost eff ective.
There’s also the insidious argument
that biomass simply uses up excess
pieces of wood that would otherwise
go to waste. No. Biomass creates a
huge drive for wood, wood and more
wood to burn. That wood comes at
the expense of fi sh and wildlife hab-
itat, functioning ecosystems and
carbon sequestration.
Why would we want to add even
more carbon dioxide into our atmo-
sphere with some vague notion we
will lower it later? Here in the West,
we are in the worst megadrought in
1,200 years, according to a February
2022 report in the journal Nature
Climate Change.
And that’s not all — the Intergov-
ernmental Panel on Climate Change
just released fi ndings showing we
are in big trouble — with billions of
people around the world already suf-
fering from sea rise, heat, fl ooding
and extreme weather. We’re seeing
the eff ects here, and it’s not going to
get better with false solutions.
We must move quickly to reduce
fossil fuel emissions and safeguard
our carbon-storing trees. Instead,
we’re adding a staggering 40 bil-
lion metric tons of carbon dioxide
per year to the atmosphere, while
we’re destroying the forests that are
our allies.
But, what about the wildfi res?
Don’t we have to thin forests in
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█
Marina Richie is a natural history writer,
journalist and author of the forthcoming
book “Halcyon Journey in Search of the Belted
Kingfisher.” She is a prior resident of La Grande
and now makes her home in Bend.
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response and why shouldn’t we then
burn those trees for biomass? But
here’s the problem — thinning is
often a term for industrial logging
that is applied not just at the wild-
land urban interface but across wide
swaths of forests and in the back-
country. Logging makes wildfi res —
and the climate crisis — worse.
Wildfi res may billow smoke, but
the vast majority of forest carbon
stays on site. Not so for biomass
burned to completion. Yes, there
will be more wildfi res, but we live in
ecosystems that have evolved with
fi re, but not logging. The key is to
protect our communities by using
our limited resources to thin small
trees close to homes.
We can still keep Northeastern
Oregon climate-resilient and beau-
tiful — if we act now. Protect our
mature and older forests and big
trees on federal lands. Explore
mechanisms to pay private land-
owners well for keeping their trees
standing. Embrace solar, wind and
energy conservation — in ways that
preserve our natural ecosystems that
are our last best hope.
I think we all want future gener-
ations to know the vanilla scent of a
centuries-old pine and to be able to
dip their toes into clear, cold, fi sh-
fi lled rivers.
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