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.
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