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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 2015)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015 Town hall: ‘Now we’re the Babe Ruth of oil production’ Continued from Page 1A While he supports renew- able projects, Wyden said, it will be some time before those sources can meet peo- ple’s needs. Jordan Cove in Coos Bay, he added, is far ahead of Warrenton in consid- eration for an LNG facility. Wyden has regularly voted against any Keystone XL pipe- line bill proposed by the Sen- ate. As a member of the energy committee, Wyden said, he’s been asked to approve the pipeline to lower gas prices. “Now we’re the Babe Ruth of oil production,” said the senator about the U.S.’s sur- passing of Saudi Arabia in oil production. There are too many un- answered questions about Keystone XL, he said, such as why project backer Tran- sCanada doesn’t pay into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, something he and oth- er senators are trying to en- sure happens in a Keystone XL bill. Kurt Englund, vice presi- dent of Englund Marine and Industrial Supply, said near- shore wave energy projects along the coast threaten prime ¿VKLQJ JURXQGV LQ H[FKDQJH for expensive energy often sold abroad. Wyden said the energy committee is trying to make sure the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management puts more of a focus on work- LQJZLWKORFDO¿VKLQJFRPPX- nities. Rubio from Florida. The bill would provide information to consumers on the price of colleges; earnings and debt loads of their graduates in various degrees; and other information to help gauge the competitive value of different colleges. Wyden covered many oth- er topics, including: • The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which he said the U.S. should throw every effective strategy at, Student focus such as drone strikes, special Students asked Wyden’s JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian forces and supporting indige- opinion of the new Common Sen. Ron Wyden spoke about many topics and answered nous resistance. Core State Standards, a con- audience questions Friday. • Liberty and security, troversial effort to nationalize owing to Wyden’s presence and often toughen education Students wondered what measures as a recent proposal on the Select Committee on standards, and standardized Wyden is doing to solve is- by Obama to make communi- Intelligence and his question- WHVWLQJ¶V LQÀXHQFH RQ HGXFD- sues with the increasing W\FROOHJHIUHHIRUWKH¿UVWWZR ing of the National Security tion. wealth gap in America, along years. Agency on the collection of Education needs account- with the skyrocketing cost of Within education, he metadata from American’s ability in a global economy college. said, the focus needs to be communications. Wyden said where it’s so integral to stu- There’s evidence that the on in-demand, high-paying liberty and security aren’t mu- dent success, Wyden said, education and wealth gap cor- professions. Wyden refer- tually exclusive, and that col- but once again, the federal relate, Wyden said, and con- enced the proposed Student lecting phone records erodes government needs to avoid structive approaches should Right to Know Before You Americans’ liberties without FUHDWLQJ D RQHVL]H¿WVDOO focus on improving America’s Go Act co-sponsored by him making them safer. solution. social safety net through such and Republican Sen. Marco • Flood mapping by the Federal Emergency Manage- ment Agency, which could force areas around Warrenton to raise their levees at an es- timated cost of $17 million. “I’m still not convinced that this whole new barrage of rules and regulations has been ¿QHWXQHG DQG EDODQFHG IRU small communities,” Wyden said, once again decrying one- VL]H¿WVDOOVROXWLRQV • Kate Brown, who he IHHOVFRQ¿GHQWLQDV2UHJRQ¶V new governor. The two have worked together on a “Listen- ing to Oregon’s Future” tour to get the input of state high school students. • Border security and immigration. Employers should be held accountable for employing undocument- ed workers, said Wyden, and undocumented people in the U.S. should be given a chance at citizenship if they learn En- glish and haven’t broken other major laws. • Gay marriage, to which he said: “If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t get one.” Wyden: ‘I think the American tax system is a broken, dysfunctional mess’ Continued from Page 1A and residents are challenging the Oregon LNG project as a threat to the Columbia River, property values and health and safety. Wyden, a member — and former chairman — of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said natural gas is a cleaner fossil fuel than coal. But he recog- nizes the environmental con- cerns about hydraulic frac- turing, or “fracking,” used to extract natural gas and the related methane emissions. “I wanted Jordan Cove to have the chance to make its case. And I like to think the fact that I did it by the book, and was straight with people, contributed to Jordan Cove having that kind of opportu- nity,” Wyden said in an inter- view Friday. “Warrenton is further be- hind in the process. And I think that those who are interested ought to just go forward with the process. I’m happy to look at it every step of the way. “I do think Jordan Cove is ahead.” Wyden discussed LNG terminals, a labor dispute that has slowed work at West Coast ports, and life in the Senate mi- nority during a stop in Astoria. West Coast ports The senator said he spoke Thursday night with U.S. Sec- retary of Labor Thomas Perez about the protracted contract dispute between the Interna- tional Longshore and Ware- KRXVH 8QLRQ DQG WKH 3DFL¿F Maritime Association that has GLVUXSWHGWKHÀRZRIJRRGVDW West Coast ports. Wyden and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., had sent letters to the union and port management urging a swift resolution. The senators had called for the two sides to en- ter binding arbitration. A tentative agreement on a new contract was reached late Friday just before a deadline set by Perez, who had warned he would move the negotia- tions to Washington, D.C., if the stalemate continued. “My sense is that they are very much aware of the ur- gency here: literally millions of dollars being lost practical- ly every few hours as a result of this,” Wyden said of the White House. In the minority The Republican takeover of the Senate after last Novem- ber’s elections gave the GOP control of Congress and cost Wyden the chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee. While Oregon’s congres- sional delegation is dominat- ed by Democrats, Wyden is not pessimistic about the po- WHQWLDOORVVRILQÀXHQFH “If you look at my record, I’ve gotten as much done in the minority as I have in the majority,” he said. Senate Republicans hold a 54 to 44 majority over the Democrats and two indepen- dents who caucus with Dem- ocrats. Senate Republicans have WR GHIHQG VLJQL¿FDQWO\ PRUH seats than Democrats in the 2016 elections. “And I think we’ll take it back in 2016,” said Wyden, who is up for re-election next year. “But I don’t want peo- ple to think that you send our delegation to Washington and you just sit around if you’re not in the majority. “The reality is, as you know, neither side has 60 YRWHV´WREUHDN¿OLEXVWHUVDQG fully control the Senate. Wyden believes there is opportunity for collaboration with Republicans on issues such as tax reform. “I think the American tax system is a broken, dysfunc- tional mess,” he said. “Basi- cally, you’ve got the tax tail wagging the economic dog.” The senator wants a tax code that is fairer to the mid- dle class and small businesses, provides stronger incentives for research and development to help drive innovation, and promotes clean energy devel- opment. “There’s an opportunity here to exercise what I call principled bipartisanship,” he said. McQuhae: ‘Society places a premium on things of beauty, like views’ Continued from Page 1A The same can’t be said of the proposed Chapman Point dune grading project that McQuhae helped bring before the Planning Commission last spring. The sand dunes in Chapman Point, where McQuhae owns a home with his wife, Diana, have grown by tens of feet, blocking the beachfront views of houses built in the late 1990s and early 2000s. McQuhae and the Chapman Point Homeown- ers Association had hoped the city would lift the subdivision’s restriction on dune grading, al- lowing them to shave down the dunes west of their property just as homeowners at Breakers Point and Ocean Avenue are al- lowed to do. But the opposition came out in force, arguing that it would degrade one of Cannon Beach’s most striking landscape features and diminish a beloved public resource. These arguments do not res- onate with McQuhae. “Society places a premium on things of beauty, like views. Views go with property,” he said. “Land that has a view com- mands a premium. It does; it’s more expensive. It’s more ex- pensive because it has a view.” People who own their prop- erty, he said, “have a right to protect the value of their prop- erty. I can’t imagine why (some residents) think that we would want to despoil our front yard, but they seem to think that that’s what we’re up to.” Dune grading at Chapman Point eventually will have to happen, he said, because letting the dunes continue to build up unchecked is “just not cricket. It’s not fair to have people lose a great portion of the value of their property due to public opinion.” embarked on a family history research project. “I got into that in quite a big way.” Ten years later, McQuhae had PRUHRUOHVV¿QLVKHGWKHSURMHFW He spent many hours sifting WKURXJK VKHHWV RI PLFUR¿FKH DQG UHHOV RI PLFUR¿OP SLHF- ing together his lineage as far back as he could. Through the Church of Latter-day Saints — which has an enormous da- tabase of birth records, burial records, marriage records and census records — he traced his ancestry, on his mother’s side, back to Germany in the Into the past early 1800s and to England in Born in Saskatoon, Canada, the mid-1700s. On his father’s McQuhae — who also owns side, he traced it back to Scot- a home in rural Washington land in the mid-1700s. County — earned a bachelor’s Beyond a certain point, his degree in applied science at the family history goes silent be- University of British Columbia cause there are no more records and a Ph.D. at London’s Imperi- WR ¿QG 1HYHUWKHOHVV 0F4X- al College of Science and Tech- hae’s research gave him tremen- nology. For 30 years, he worked dous insight into the past. in the semiconductor industry. “You’re learning about the At Northern Telecom Limited in times, the era they lived in, the Ottawa, Canada, and at Intel in type of conditions there were, Hillsboro, he helped develop the what people did for a living, processes for manufacturing sil- what things cost,” he said. icon chips for modern electronic “You’re just absorbing all kinds devices. of information that’s there, not After retiring in 1999, he because you’re looking for it but began looking into the origins because it’s peripheral to what of his unusual Scottish name — you’re looking for, and it just ³<RXGRQ¶W¿QGWRRPDQ\RIXV presents itself.” in this world,” he said — and A family’s having up to 13 children was “quite com- mon,” he said. “Losing three of those children to childhood illnesses was quite common. They didn’t have cures for diphtheria, measles. Many children died of tuberculosis.” He never met his father’s mother and barely remem- bers his father’s father, “but through studying family his- tory, I feel I know them, and I feel I know their parents.” Asked whether he enjoys the spare time retirement affords him, McQuhae smiled and said, ³,VHHPWR¿OOLW´ — Erick Bengel ‘Mega Sink’: Volunteers remove 539 pounds of debris from the South Jetty Continued from Page 1A 7KH\ FDUU\ ÀDPH UHWDUGDQWV and other toxics, along with “leg- acy pollutants” such as PCBs and organochlorine pesticides dis- carded by industry and farming. The National Oceanic and Atmo- spheric Administration has re- ported that microplastics contain PCBs, a probable carcinogen, at levels up to a million times high- er than in seawater. As the weather warms up, much of the plastic debris threatens to leach such harmful chemicals into a wetland site frequented by killdeer, snowy owls, pelicans, small mammals, reptiles and clams. He said the animals often mistake the micro- plastics for food, eating them and tearing up their digestive tracts. Of particular concern right now, said Ward, is the coming nesting season from March 15 to July 15 of snowy plovers, Submitted photo About 50 volunteers, human and equine, picked 539 pounds of debris — much of it small, hard-to-reach mi- croplastics — out of a tidal inlet next to the South Jetty at Fort Stevens State Park. protected under state law and under the federal Endangered Species Act. Clatsop Spit is one of several snowy plover man- agement areas designated by the state. Ward said he’s now partner- ing with solid waste agencies in Tillamook County to clean the beaches of Manzanita using his system of an electrostatically charged screen that takes micro- plastic debris out of sand as it ¿OWHUVWKURXJK zZDXQDIFXRUJ