OPINION
4A
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Astoria City Council
does the heavy lifting
In Verizon tower choice, it’s impossible
to satisfy all constituencies
W
hen the newly elected President John Kennedy assem-
bled a Cabinet that was glittering with Ivy League de-
grees, House Speaker Sam Rayburn was unimpressed. After
Vice President Lyndon Johnson expressed his amazement
at this group’s collective brilliance, Speaker Rayburn said:
“They may be every bit as intelligent as you say, but I’d feel
a whole lot better about them if just one of them had run for
sheriff once.”
Rayburn’s colorful allusion was
that high level presidential appoin-
tees often have no appreciation for
where the rubber meets the road
— for the mundane basis of govern-
ment and politics.
If you watched the Astoria City
Council grapple with the Verizon
tower issue — through Derrick
DePledge’s reporting — you got a
taste of what makes the councilor’s
job dif¿cult. In a nutshell, the coun-
cil could not satisfy all constituen-
cies in a matter such as this.
But the physics of the Verizon
matter were direct. As Assistant City
Manager Brad Johnston said, the
council in 2013 directed city staff to
move the Verizon tower off Coxcomb
Hill. And in the last ¿scal year, the
council set the completion of emer-
gency communications as a goal.
Adam Haas, of Converge
Communications, told the council
that erecting a monopole in Shively
Park was “the lesser of the evils.”
That is another way of saying that
politics is the art of the possible.
DePledge noted that council ap-
proval is only the ¿rst step. The city
Planning Commission and Historic
Landmarks Commission will also
have their say.
Meanwhile, councilors made a
decision. In a matter this thankless
and dif¿cult, that is admirable.
Federal regulators should
take close look at
Oregon LNG, oil-by-rail
F
The era of taking fossil fuel
companies at their word is over
ederal regulators play increas-
ingly powerful roles in shaping
the Lower Columbia River’s future
as communities ¿nd ourselves on
the front line of international energy
transportation.
There are indications that one
key agency will work to allow ma-
jor projects to proceed, while some
others won’t automatically rub-
ber-stamp plans.
This week, the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission issued a
draft report saying Oregon LNG’s
proposed $6 billion terminal and
pipeline project would harm the
environment. Last week, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
and the National Park Service voiced
worries about potential damage from
a plan to build the nation’s biggest
oil-by-rail terminal on the Columbia
River in Vancouver, Wash.
In each case, agencies and proj-
ect proponents can highlight ways
in which harm can be minimized
or avoided altogether by careful
designs, safety practices and oth-
er steps. Regarding Oregon LNG
plans, the typically pro-develop-
ment FERC appears willing to be
convinced that the project can be
made safe enough to proceed.
FERC’s analysis fails in several
respects. For example, FERC con-
cludes that ¿shing boats forced out
of the way of LNG tankers can sim-
ply return to what they were doing
immediately after ships pass, with-
out suffering any adverse effects.
This assumption betrays a lack of
understanding of how ¿shing boats
operate. Signi¿cant interruptions are
not so easily accommodated.
FERC also appears to attach lit-
tle importance to hazards associat-
ed with storing large quantities of
lique¿ed natural gas on a shoreline
subject to massive subduction zone
earthquakes and tsunamis. The agen-
cy’s report concludes the project can
be made to “provide acceptable lay-
ers of protection that would reduce
the risk of a potentially hazardous
scenario from developing into an
event that could impact the off-site
public.” This sounds all too much
like the bland assurances of absolute
safety made for Japan’s Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Plants before an
earthquake and tsunami turned them
into a radioactive wasteland.
The EPA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers can — and should — also
prepare their own ¿ndings and rec-
ommendations for the LNG facility.
In contrast to FERC, EPA said
of Vancouver oil terminal plans that
they would violate the federal Clean
Water Act and should not be allowed
to go any further until de¿ciencies
are addressed. The National Park
Service expressed reservations about
how oil development will impact the
Fort Vancouver National Historic
Site. NPS also expresses the broad-
er view that going along with a big
new fossil-fuel facility will harm
more-distant national assets such as
ice ¿elds in Glacier National Park.
Corporate memories and con-
sciences are short, Without ¿rm and
consistent enforcement of strict rules,
environmental compliance will slide.
Taxpayers and local communities
too often are left to deal with pollu-
tion and cleanup costs after accidents
occur. Agencies must hold a ¿rm line
and place the burden on fossil-fuel
companies to prove they have the as-
sets and staying power to make good
on promises.
Oregon LNG, which lost a court
battle last week with the Army
Corps over a property-rights issue,
deserves particularly rigorous scru-
tiny to make sure it is able to do ev-
erything it claims. The era of taking
fossil fuel companies at their word
ended for good when the Arctic
started melting.
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2015
New Yorker story draws attention
I
I MPRESSIONS
just want to thank The New
Yorker magazine for letting us
all know that a hugely destructive
earthquake and tsunami could hit us
at any time.
If it hadn’t been for that story,
we on the North Coast might nev-
er have realized the danger we are
in.
It’s not like I and other local
journalists — including author
Bonnie Henderson, who wrote the
book, “The Next Tsunami: Living
on a Restless Coast” — haven’t
been writing about this for many
years.
Entitled “The Really Big One”
with a subhead, “The earthquake
that will devastate the Pacific
Northwest,” the story, written by
Kathryn Schulz in the July 20 New
Yorker, is accompanied by a topo-
graphical map of the West Coast of
North America in red.
At the coastline, from south of
the California border extending to
beyond Canada, the map looks like
it has been ripped apart; a wide jag-
ged band of white — resembling
a huge wave — covers all of the
West Coast and heads east.
The caption next to the illustra-
tion says, “The next full rupture of
the Cascadia Subduction Zone will
spell the worst natural disaster in
the history of the continent.”
Scary, huh?
I have followed the Cascadia
Subduction Zone earthquake and
tsunami story for over eight years.
My first story in the spring of 2007
included an interview with Rob
Witter, formerly of the Oregon De-
partment of Geology and Mineral
Industries (now with the U.S. Geo-
logical Service in Alaska), who had
just discovered that sand originally
from the beach in Cannon Beach
had been thrown about a mile east
of what is now U.S. Highway 101
during a past tsunami. Witter made
the discovery after filtering soil
and determining its properties and
age in several areas between the
beach and forest east of town.
State geologists created a new
map for Cannon Beach, showing
that land higher than 30 feet in el-
evation wasn’t as safe as experts
originally thought. The tsunami in-
undation zone now reached 80 feet
high.
With that news, the research in-
tensified. Oregon State University
Coastal and Ocean faculty, along
with staffers from Department of
Geology and Mineral Industries,
roamed the coast, seeking clues re-
vealing the potential intensity and
destructive path of the next Casca-
State geologists drew new tsunami
maps for all of the Oregon Coast.
And at each step, I and other
reporters were there, updating our
readers and listeners on the latest
developments. Some people paid
attention and prepared. Others ig-
B Y
nored it. Until The New Yorker
N ANCY
writer discovered that the West
M C C ARTHY
Coast faced potential, overwhelm-
ing disaster.
“When the next full-margin rup-
ture happens,” Schulz wrote, “that
region (the Pacific Northwest) will
suffer the worst natural disaster in
dia earthquake and tsunami.
They wrote reports about the the history of North America.” It
sturdiness of local schools and oth- will kill 13,000 people and injure
er buildings. They created a model another 27,000, she says, citing the
of the city of Cannon Beach in Or- Federal Emergency Management
egon State’s wave research labora- Agency’s estimates. Shelter will be
tory, knocked it down with model needed for 1 million people.
But we already knew that, didn’t
tsunami waves and studied their
effect, then recreated the town and we? Well, at least the rest of the na-
tion knows now.
started all over again.
My question is this: Will The
They created a computer simula-
tion of Seaside, showing how long New Yorker story make any differ-
it would take a tsunami to reach ence in our urgency to prepare for
shore, then Necanicum Drive, then an event that, geologically speak-
the highway and Wahanna Road ing, could happen any time? I hope
and how many people would die as so, because, to be honest, no matter
how much we local journalists cov-
the waves washed over them.
A similar computer simulation ered it, our stories never garnered
was done for Cannon Beach, as as much attention as this one story
well, showing how many people has.
But what’s
might make it
going to be in-
across the Fir
teresting on a
Street
Bridge My question is
whole
other
and to high
this: Will The
level is the lo-
ground on the
cal fallout from
north side, as
New Yorker
the July 28 New
well as to other
Yorker’s
fol-
elevated areas in
story make
low-up story to
town.
any difference Schulz’s origi-
A year after
nal article.
the 2011 tsuna-
Schulz an-
mi hit Japan, the in our urgency
swers
principal from
to prepare for questions several
that
Kesennuma Ju-
nior High School
an event that, arose following
her initial story.
in the Tohoku
geologically
This is what she
region told the
advises tourists:
story of how his
speaking,
“If you are
school, at an el-
an
out-of-town-
evation of 150
could happen
er planning to
feet, became a
spend a night in
shelter for six
any time?
the tsunami zone:
months. At least
don’t ... Go to the
16,000 people
died in the 9.0 earthquake and re- coast by day, for sure. But if you’re
sulting tsunami, considered to be staying overnight, book a vacation
the most devastating natural disas- rental, hotel room or campsite out-
side the inundation zone.”
ter ever to hit Japan.
For the coastal towns that de-
Locally, residents in Seaside,
Cannon Beach and Gearhart creat- pend on overnight visitors, this
ed committees and prepared for the New Yorker story might portend
Big One. They conducted drills, another, immediate disaster.
Nancy McCarthy recently re-
stored supplies, trained Communi-
ty Emergency Response Teams and tired as editor of the Seaside Sig-
continued to perform myriad other nal and the Cannon Beach Gazette.
tasks to ensure the public’s safety. Her column appears monthly.
Trump’s allure: Ego as ideology
may win through sheer de-
perience this invisibility.
termination, but she’s not a
He appeals to members of
the alienated middle class
natural ¿t for this moment.
(like those folks in Canar-
hen America is growing A career establishment ¿g-
sie) who believe that nei-
ure
like
Joe
Biden
doesn’t
and happy, the country
ther the rich nor the poor
stand a chance. He’s a won-
is sort of like a sprinter’s track. derful man and a great pub-
have to play by the same
As Robert H. Wiebe put it in his lic servant, but he should not
rules they do. He appeals
to people who are resent-
classic book “The Segmented run for president this year,
ful of immigrants who get
for
the
sake
of
his
long-term
Society,” when things were
what they, allegedly, don’t
reputation.
David
going well the diverse country
deserve.
On the other hand,
Brooks
But Trump’s support
comprised “countless isolated bumper-car
politicians
lanes where Americans, singly thrive. Bernie Sanders is swimming base is weird. It skews slightly more
the tide. He’s a conviction poli- secular and less educated than the av-
or in groups, dashed like rows with
tician comfortable with class conÀict. erage Republican, but he doesn’t draw
of racers toward their goals.”
Many people on the left have a gener- from any distinctive blocs. Unlike past
In times of scarcity and alienation, alized, vague hunger for fundamental populisms he’s not especially rural
it’s more like bumper cars. Different systemic change or at least the atmo- or urban, ethnic based or class based.
groups feel their lanes are blocked, so spherics of radical change.
He draws people as individuals, not
they start crashing into one another.
The times are perfect for Donald groups.
Unlike past populisms, his main ar-
The cultural elites start feuding with Trump. He’s an outsider, which ap-
the ¿nancial elites. The lower middle peals to the alienated. He’s confronta- gument is not that the elites are corrupt
class starts feuding with the poor.
tional, which appeals to the frustrated. or out of touch. It is that they are mo-
A few decades ago the sociologist And, in a unique 21st-century wrinkle, rons. His announcement speech was
Jonathan Rieder studied what was he’s a narcissist who thinks he can fascinating (and compelling). “How
then the white working-class neigh- solve every problem, which appeals stupid are our leaders?” he asked rhe-
borhood of Ca-
to people who torically. “Our president doesn’t have
narsie, Brooklyn.
in challenging a clue,” he continued. “We have peo-
Never before
People
there
times don’t feel ple that are stupid,” he observed of the
were hostile both
con¿dent in their leadership class.
have we
In other words, it’s not that our
to their poorer
understanding of
experienced a their surround- problems are unsolvable or even hard.
black neighbors,
who they felt
ings and who It’s not that we’re potentially a nation
moment with
threatened their
crave
leaders in decline. The problem is that we
don’t have a leadership class as smart,
community, and
who
seem
to be.
so much public
to the Manhattan
Trump’s pop- competent, tough and successful as
elites, who they
alienation and ulism is pretty Donald Trump.
Measured in standard political
felt sold them out
standard. He ap-
them from above. so much private, peals to people terms he is not ideologically consis-
We are now
who, as Walter tent. As Peter Wehner pointed out,
assertive
living in a time of
Lippmann once he’s taken so many liberal positions
economic anxi-
put it, “feel rather he makes Susan Collins look like Bar-
and fragile
ety and political
like a deaf spec- ry Goldwater. But ego is his ideology,
alienation. Just
tator in the back and in this he is absolutely consistent.
self-esteem.
three in 10 Amer-
row. ... He knows In the Trump mind the world is not
icans believe that
he is somehow divided into right and left. Instead
their views are represented in Wash- affected by what is going on. ... (But) there are winners and losers. Society
ington, according to a CNN/ORC poll. these public affairs are in no convinc- is led by losers, who scorn and disre-
Con¿dence in public institutions like ing way his affairs. They are for the spect the people who are actually the
schools, banks and churches is near most part invisible. They are managed, winners.
Never before have we experienced
historic lows, according to Gallup. if they are managed at all, at distant
Only 29 percent of Americans think centers, from behind the scenes by un- a moment with so much public alien-
the nation is on the right track, accord- named powers. ... In the cold light of ation and so much private, assertive
ing to Rasmussen.
experience, he knows that his sover- and fragile self-esteem. Trump is the
This climate makes it hard for the eignty is a ¿ction. He reigns in theory, perfect conÀuence of these trends.
He won’t be president, but he’s not an
establishment candidates who normal- but in fact he does not govern.”
ly dominate our politics. Jeb Bush is
When Trump is striking populist aberration. He is deeply rooted in the
swimming upstream. Hillary Clinton chords, he appeals to people who ex- currents of our time.
By DAVID BROOKS
New York Times News Service
W