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Volume 111
Number 15
August 6, 2010
Portland, Oregon
IBEW Local 125 fights to save members’ jobs
Decision nears over closure of PGE Boardman coal plant
By DON McINTOSH
Association Editor
BOARDMAN — From Interstate
84, 160 miles east of Portland, all
that’s visible of the Boardman Coal
Plant is its smokestack. That smoke-
stack, 11 miles south of the freeway,
is Oregon’s tallest man-made struc-
ture, 656 feet tall — 110 feet taller
than Portland’s highest skyscraper.
And what comes out of the smoke-
stack is the subject of fierce debate.
The Boardman Coal Plant, owned
and operated by Portland General
Electric (PGE), is Oregon’s biggest
emitter of greenhouse gases and of
gases that contribute to haze and acid
rain. It’s also one of the state’s cheap-
est power sources, generating up to
585 megawatts — enough power to
meet the needs of a third of a million
residential customers. And, for 110
members of International Brother-
hood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
Local 125, the Boardman Coal Plant
is a livelihood.
“Where’s the smoke?” is often the
“I’d like to retire here,” said Russ Scholl, a service mechanic and structural
welder at PGE’s Boardman coal-powered electricity generating plant. But
Scholl, 37, said that seems increasingly unlikely, as the company and
regulatory agencies exchange proposals to close Boardman, which is Oregon’s
single biggest stationary source of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen
oxides.
first question asked by visitors to the
plant. People expect clouds of soot at
the top of the stack, or at least a puff
of something. But giant electrostatic
precipitators remove nearly all the
particles from Boardman’s exhaust.
Instead, what comes out of the 30-
foot diameter chimney is nearly invis-
ible: 5 million tons a year of carbon
dioxide, 28,000 tons of sulfur oxides
(SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), and
221 pounds of mercury. None of that
is trifling. Mercury, a potent neuro-
toxin, contributes to learning disabili-
ties in children; nitrogen oxides and
sulfur oxides cause haze and acid rain,
which obscure views and erode petro-
glyphs in the Columbia Gorge; and
carbon dioxide is the best-known
greenhouse gas, responsible for plane-
tary climate change.
What’s it like to work at a plant
that KOIN-TV news dubbed Oregon’s
“dirty little secret”? Under-appreci-
ated and misunderstood, say workers
at the plant.
“If there was a green answer, I’d
Supporters of private casino say secretary of state
invalidated valid signatures; judge agrees to hearing
Chief petitioners of a labor-en-
dorsed petition to build a privately-op-
erated casino in Wood Village filed a
lawsuit after the Elections Division de-
termined that the initiative lacked
enough valid signatures to qualify for
the November ballot.
According to Secretary of State
Kate Brown, the amendment failed to
obtain the required 110,358 valid sig-
natures for a constitutional amend-
ment. Backers turned in 172,136 raw
signatures. Of those, only 60.78 per-
cent — or 104,629 — were determined
to be from registered Oregon voters.
The announcement stunned officials
from the Columbia Pacific Building
and Construction Trades Council. De-
velopers of the $250 million-plus en-
tertainment center/casino to be built at
a shuttered dog track in Wood Village
signed a project labor agreement with
the council, guaranteeing it would be
union built. In turn, affiliated construc-
tion locals helped collect signatures.
“Obviously, this is a huge disap-
pointment for the building trades,” said
John Mohlis, executive secretary of the
building trades council. “The construc-
tion industry is in desperate need for
work, and this would have helped.”
Matt Rossman, co-chief petitioner,
said the secretary of state’s determina-
tion is wrong.
The campaign’s signature gathering
firm — Democracy Resources of Port-
land — evaluated 35,000 of the signa-
tures submitted and found a validity
rate far above the number needed to
qualify for the ballot, Rossman said.
The Elections Division evaluated 8,500
signatures and found one of the lowest
validity rates in a decade — 60.78 per-
cent. The Oregonian reported the aver-
age validity rate since 2000 has been
73 percent.
The petitioners’ goal, with a budget
of $1.2 million, was to collect 160,000
signatures.
“Our signature gathering firm has
the best validity record in the business,”
Rossman said. “Therefore, we think
the secretary has made mistakes in
checking signatures. We’ve asked the
secretary for the rejected signatures and
access to the signatures on file so we
can evaluate whether the secretary
made the mistakes we’re sure she
made. If the secretary cooperates, we
won’t need to continue the lawsuit.”
At a July 30 hearing, Marion
County Circuit Court Judge Paul Lip-
scomb denied the petitioners’ request
for an injunction to block the secretary
of state’s certification, which became
official Aug. 1. However, he did agree
to hear arguments disputing the results
on Aug. 20. That hearing is set for 1:30
p.m. at the Marion County Courthouse.
A companion statutory measure to
site a casino in Wood Village did qual-
ify for the ballot. That initiative —
which required 82,769 signatures (peti-
tioners submitted 136,938 raw signa-
tures) — detailed how much would be
spent initially to build the casino and
entertainment center ($250 million)
and where some of the profits would
go. The statutory initiative authorized
25 percent of adjusted gross gaming
revenues — estimated at more than
$100 million a year — be dedicated to
K-12 education and other public serv-
ices.
Both initiatives needed voter ap-
proval in order for the project to move
forward. But because the statutory ini-
tiative did qualify, Oregonians will still
have a vote on the entertainment cen-
ter.
“Oregonians deserve to continue
the conversation about how we are go-
ing to solve Oregon’s budget crisis,”
said co-petitioner Bruce Studer. “A
casino that actually pays taxes is wor-
thy of a decision by Oregon voters.”
stand behind it 100 percent,” said Lo-
cal 125 member Russ Scholl, a serv-
ice mechanic and structural welder at
the Boardman plant.
Wind turbines are proliferating on
ridgetops up and down the Columbia
Gorge, but what happens when the
wind stops blowing? For reliability,
wind must partner with a “baseload”
power source. Because of population
growth and increased energy con-
sumption, hydropower can no longer
satisfy the Pacific Northwest’s energy
needs. PGE closed its nuclear plant in
1992. That leaves coal and natural
(Turn to Page 13)
City draws
road map for
new marine
terminal
The Portland City Council on July
29 passed a resolution authorizing staff
to develop a legislative proposal for an-
nexation of West Hayden Island, to
protect at least 500 acres as open space
and to identify no more than 300 acres
for future deep water marine terminal
development.
The council voted 4-0, with Com-
missioner Randy Leonard absent.
Union members turned out in
droves in support of the resolution,
saying it was a jobs issue. Workers
donning “Jobs” stickers filled a good
portion of the council chambers, plus
half the balcony seats. The Port of
Portland estimated that some 1,200
family-wage jobs would be created if a
marine terminal were to be built.
“The kind of jobs that are associ-
ated with maritime development are
high wage blue collar jobs,” said port
director Bill Wyatt.
The Port of Portland purchased the
814-acre island in 1994 with the inten-
tion of building a large cargo facility.
The island was brought into the Metro
urban growth boundary in 1983 specif-
ically for that purpose.
Jeff Smith, president of the Inter-
(Turn to Page 6)