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About The North Coast times-eagle. (Wheeler, Oregon) 1971-2007 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2005)
N O R T H C O A S T T IM E S E A G L E , AUGTEMBER 2005 PAGE CYNDY LEE Calpine needs to pay keen attention to demographics to find a happy home for its plant. Clatsop County is strongly Democrat in its voter base Retirees and poor people see no benefit to them from Calpine Ecotopian-type environmentalists are a strong, organ ized and mobilized sub-set of the voter base. A more receptive demographic to Calpine would be a river community composed of union-loyal Democrats and traditional Republicans. Perhaps Longview (Washington) or Saint Helens (Oregon) would welcome the LNG plant. The state of Oregon is largely liberal and even its Republicans are known to break rank with the Party. Statewide voters would not appreciate an LNG plant at the mouth of the Columbia. Calpine would fare better upstream closer to Hanford MICHAEL LINK I think Calpine sucks I don’t want this to be an industrial community. It might give us about 10 jobs, but that’s not worth the loss of property values or destruction of the area's esthetics. This is supposedly about Homeland Security: we are told we need LNG around the country to maintain the status quo of our energy. Whether the community wants LNG or not, the federal government says we have to have it. We have no choice. That makes me mad, and I’d be mad even if I were a supporter of LNG. (He is angry to see large Calpine banners at the Clatsop County Fair, indicating the corporation was allowed to be a sponsor without any input from the public, which is getting to be an old story; and he is curious if the opposition would have been allowed to put up its own banners, or if they were even made aware about the Calpine banners.) RITA SMITH The LNG facility idea has sent chills down my spine since I first heard of it. That some would consider compromising our special area and way of life for their own glory and greed is disgusting Not surprising, but disgusting Shame on those who perpetrated this process — and then tried to “justify" their actions with propaganda about jobs and tax revenues. All you have to do is read the real facts to know it is all hype. Shame on them. LYNNE NICHOLS-FARRAR K im M c C arthy DAVID ISSACS The following was written as a letter to the editor of the Daily Astorian. I’d like to offer an alternative to the liquefied natural gas “wannabe" source of jobs and tax money Wannabe, because our state’s energy siting council just revoked Calpine’s petition for an electrical plant in the Salem area. After five years of non performance and broken promises, the license application was pulled. Then I will explain why another plan for the Port of Astoria property is the only sensible alternative to this kind of corporate folly. Cost efficiency, as the corporate mantra would say, dictates they should locate LNG terminals next to the pipe line. But they can’t locate in Washington State where the closest pipeline and the need is, because they currently have state regulations that LNG facilities of this kind can’t or won't comply with. Also, the communities of Oxnard, Vallejo and Eureka, Calif ornia have, after evaluating and listening to the LNG case, sent them packing. As many as 12 other communities across the country have — independently of the California decisions — denied the LNG outfits permits because they didn’t give away their lease holds before listening to all discussions and alternatives in the public interest. Everyone knows our port commissioners were suckered and pulled into this deal on the basis of corporate secrecy. Only the public is getting shortchanged, because two more things the community needs have been forfeited. First, a $1 billion bond needed to be given as long as the facility is a risk to the commu nity. Second, these companies are starting to figure out they can get into standard industrial-zoned parcels with Level 1 Respond er risks. Zoning laws need to reflect these Responder 1 hazards with higher standards. The other part is market capacity. Two plants go in and competing interests create market forces where one then gets bought out. One plant gets closed, or to avoid lawsuits, works at 50% of capacity while its headquarters files a lawsuit against the county to rescind the property taxes assessed. The real problem is how to meet the needs of a community with an independent spirit and build on the community’s strengths and needs, creat ing more jobs over a longer period of time. Everyone knows the kids here are just as bright and beautiful as those in Garrison Keiler’s Lake Wobegon. The community, however, needs to carry a conversation to the next level. The lingering question is, how will this area attract jobs so that the kids of today will want to stay as the adults of tomorrow? How does all this happen to exceed what Calpine is promising? I would like to suggest that instead of an LNG facility at the Calpine site, the port board accept some public responsi bility and abrogate the Calpine lease. Then build a Clatsop Com munity College facility that will support four times as many jobs — business people, administrative workers, teachers, engineers, lots of support staff personnel and many others. It could be a new CCC with the Marine and Environmental Research and Training Station incorporated into the same campus in a shared facility that includes an Oregon State University unit. Here we have a real opportunity to build on, a much broader cross-section of jobs for a longer time, and a chance to provide the future for the next generation and our area's future. The Lower Columbia Clinic The LNG proposals are another example of “stay the course" thinking that George W. Bush believes shows leader ship and makes America strong. Now more of us see that to promote the idea that we can continue to live extravagantly without a tremendous cost is dishonest. Whether it is lives lost in a global war “on terror,” drilling for oil in pristine areas, global warming or LNG terminals permanently polluting/altering this region, it is time to look closely at the consequences of our choices and what we are giving up. How we vote and what we buy tells the rest of the world what we value. After the last election, it is difficult to imagine a dramatic change in direction, but I am still hopeful that we will have the integrity to acknow ledge what we have chosen and what we have lost. Having the courage to speak candidly about this pickle we are all in — over six billion of us now (one third of the population growth in the world is the result of accidental or unwanted pregnancies) — could help unify a fragmented world and restore our credibility here at home. That would be true leadership! But are we listen ing or would we rather go shopping (as George W suggests) to quiet our concerns. CHRIS GRANT What advantages to our quality of life would LNG bring us? Some jobs? In trade for what? Follow the money It doesn't go to the little person, that's for sure. BECKY HART The liquefied natural gas backers are bringing out the big guns to tout the way of safe business in rural Oregon. Citizens, steady yourselves for the carpet-bombing of LNG public relations. The state of California is bracing for millions of dollars to be spent on PR by the LNG industry, according to an article The Sacramento Bee. Why us? Could it be it has become so dangerous for U S. firms to have gas power plants and sites in the rest of the world, because of our precarious political stance, that these mega-energy and power companies have to barge and store extracted gas in rural Oregon, where the need for jobs and fairy dust outweigh rational scrutiny? Look across the river to Washington, a state of public utility districts created to control local energy costs. LNG plants sited in Oregon are for power manipulation, not local consump tion. Guaranteed, this is about their profits. Wake up. 1TWÉ G» i /'WN it Y5T o RE ^act)nR©el< RECORD & TAPE SHOP POPULAR MUSIC FROM THE 17TH TO 21ST CENTURY & ALLEY C A T ESPRESSO 389 12TH ST. ASTORIA 3338-6376 M U SIC N O N -PR O FIT TO THE SPAY A NEUTER H U M A N E A S S O C IA TIO N SHANGHAIED IN ASTORIA RUNS THROUGH SEPTEMBER 10 EVERY THURS, FRI & SAT EVENINGS AT THE FINNISH MEAT MARKET THEATER 279 W. MARINE DRIVE. CALL 325-6104 Bikes & Beyond 1089 MARINE DR. 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