OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JUNE 26, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Chemical plant
fails the sniff test
T
his famous line from 1967’s “The Graduate” comes to
mind when pondering one of the latest large industrial
developments planned for the Lower Columbia River: “I
just want to say one word to you. Just one word. … Plastics.”
In that far simpler time 50 years ago, it was plausible to sug-
gest to a fresh college graduate that his future — and indeed the
world’s — could hinge on that then-new material. Countless uses
have been developed for the many varieties of plastic created by
chemical laboratories and factories. We’re surrounded by it in our
vehicles. Our trash cans fill up every day with single-use plastic
packing materials. It would take near-fanatical concentration to
avoid it entirely.
Though it has yet to make much of an impression upon public
awareness here near the mouth of the river, a proposed chemical
plant in Kalama, Washington, is exciting much attention elsewhere
in the region. The Seattle City Council unanimously voted ear-
lier this month to oppose the $1.8 billion distillery planned for the
banks of the Columbia southeast of Longview. Working its way
through the regulatory system, this plant would take methane (nat-
ural gas) and convert it into methanol (wood alcohol) for export to
China, where it would be chemically manipulated into plastics.
The Seattle council’s stance against the Kalama facility is part
of a broader reaction to President Donald Trump’s repudiation of
the Paris climate accords. West Coast cities and states on the front
lines of sea-level rise and acidifying seawater are understandably
anxious to begin ramping back on fossil-fuel use. Natural gas is a
clean and abundant fuel, but also a powerful greenhouse gas in its
own right when it escapes in between wellheads and end users. In
addition, more common greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is created
during the methanol-manufacturing, transportation of the finished
product, and conversion into plastic.
Estimates vary, but around 90 full-time jobs will be created by
the Kalama plant — insignificant by Seattle standards but a fairly
big deal in southwest Washington, where the economy chronically
underperforms the metro areas it is wedged between. It’s appro-
priate to seek good-paying industrial jobs for the area. However,
it’s also appropriate to carefully examine proposals to make cer-
tain they don’t harm other industries and regional values. Lower
Columbia residents know all too well how 20th century indus-
trialization of the river decimated our local fishing industry, for
example.
In a helpful overview (tinyurl.com/Kalama-Methanol),
Sightline Institute cites project documents that show the plant cre-
ating up to 3.6 million metric tons of methanol per year, whereas
the largest methanol plant now in existence — in Iran — makes
about 2 million tons a year. A facility on this scale would create a
number of noticeable impacts and risks in the form of water with-
drawals, steam and diesel particulate pollution, and increased dan-
ger from tanker traffic and earthquake exposure, according tot
Sightline’s analysis.
From our local standpoint, there is little obvious upside to the
Kalama proposal. By bolstering a nearby economy, it conceivably
might result in a few more visits to the coast. It’s possible the three
to six methanol tankers per month transiting to China might some-
times anchor in the estuary and spend money here. And we all use
plastic.
On the downside, the facility would place up to 72 million gal-
lons of methanol on water-saturated soil in a region subject to
intense earthquakes — spilled methanol that could poison the
river and float downstream to us. The facility’s routine operations
would, according to Sightline, generate five times more diesel-par-
ticulate pollution than allowed under state guidelines for air tox-
ics. It would use 5 million gallons of water a day, sending much
of it into the air in the form of a steam plumes longer than Mount
St. Helens’ height a quarter of the time and longer than Alaska’s
Mount Denali’s height 12 percent of the time.
There have always been, and probably will always be, promot-
ers desiring to use Columbia River resources without much effort
to be good neighbors. The Kalama plant, promising cheap Chinese
plastic in return for significant negative consequences for the
Lower Columbia, hasn’t yet passed the sniff test as something that
gives back more than it takes.
Miseducating the young
By DAVID BROOKS
New York Times News Service
A
few months ago I had lunch
with a former student named
Lucy Fleming, one of the
best writers I’ve
taught. I asked
her what she had
learned in her first
year out of college.
She said she had
been forced to
think differently.
While in school, her thinking
was station to station: take that
test, apply to that college, aim
for a degree. But in young adult-
hood, there are no more stations.
Everything is open seas. Your main
problems are not about the assign-
ment right in front of you; they are
about the horizon far away. What
should you be steering toward? It
requires an entirely different set of
navigational skills.
This gets at one of the oddest
phenomena of modern life.
Childhood is more structured than
it has ever been. But then the great
engine of the meritocracy spits
people out into a young adulthood
that is less structured than it has
ever been.
There used to be certain
milestones that young adults were
directed toward by age 27: leaving
home, becoming financially inde-
pendent, getting married, buying
a house, having a child. But the
information economy has scrambled
those timetables. Current 20-some-
things are much less likely to do any
of those things by 30. They are less
likely to be anchored in a political
party, church or some other creedal
community.
When I graduated from college
there was a finite number of career
ladders in front of me: teacher,
lawyer, doctor, business. Now
college graduates enter a world with
4 million footstools. There are many
more places to perch (a startup, an
NGO, a coffee shop, a consultancy)
but few of the footstools pay a sus-
taining wage, seem connected with
the others or lead to a clear ladder of
rungs to climb upward.
People in their 20s seem to
be compelled to bounce around
more, popping up here and there,
quantumlike, with different jobs,
living arrangements and partners
while hoping that all these diverse
experiences magically add up to
something.
Naturally enough, their descrip-
tions of their lives are rife with
uncertainty and anxiety. Many
young adults describe a familiar
pattern. They try something out but
soon feel trapped. They drink too
much, worry about how to get out
of a job or a relationship. Eventually
they do, which is often easier than
the anxiety beforehand. They put
their life on pause, which is lonely,
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Clatsop Community College’s Class of 2017 lines up to enter Patriot
Hall in June for a commencement ceremony. Many young people see
an uncertain path to a secure and happy future.
while they recohere. Then they try
something else.
All the while social media makes
the comparison game more intrusive
than ever, and nearly everybody
feels as if he or she is falling behind.
Recently I came across a website
with popular message tattoos. The
ones people chose weren’t exactly
about carefree youth. They were
about endurance and resilience: “I
will break but I will not fold”; “Fall
down seven times, stand up eight”;
“Don’t lose yourself in your fear”;
“The only way out is through.”
Before, there
were social
structures
that could
guide young
adults as they
gradually
figured out the
big questions
of life.
Now, those
structures are
gone.
And how do we as a society
prepare young people for this
uncertain phase? We pump them
full of vapid but haunting praise
about how talented they are and
how their future is limitless. Then
we send them (the most privileged
of them) to colleges where the pro-
fessors teach about what interests
the professors. Then we preach a
gospel of autonomy that says all the
answers to the deeper questions in
life are found by getting in touch
with your “true self,” whatever the
heck that is.
I used to think that the answer
to the traumas of the 20s was
patience. Life is long. Wait until
they’re 30. They’ll figure it out.
Now I think that laissez-faire atti-
tude trivializes the experiences of
young adulthood and condescends
to the people going through them.
I’m beginning to side with
Meg Jay, who argued in her book
“The Defining Decade” that telling
people “30 is the new 20” is com-
pletely counterproductive.
Jay’s book is filled with advice
on how to get on with life. For
example, build identity capital.
If you are going to be underem-
ployed, do it in a way that people
are going to find interesting later
on. Nobody is ever going to ask
you, “What was it like being a
nanny?” They will ask you, “What
was it like leading excursions of
Outward Bound?”
I’d say colleges have to do much
more to put certain questions on the
table, to help students grapple with
the coming decade of uncertainty:
What does it mean to be an adult
today? What are seven or 10 ways
people have found purpose in life?
How big should I dream or how
realistic should I be? What are
the criteria we should think about
before shacking up? What is the
cure for sadness? What do I want
and what is truly worth wanting?
Before, there were social struc-
tures that could guide young adults
as they gradually figured out the
big questions of life. Now, those
structures are gone. Young people
are confronted by the existential
questions right away. They’re going
to feel lost if they have no sense
of what they’re pointing toward,
if they have no vision of the holy
grails on the distant shore.
WHERE TO WRITE
• U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
(D): 2338 Rayburn HOB, Washing-
ton, D.C., 20515. Phone: 202- 225-
0855. Fax 202-225-9497. District
office: 12725 SW Millikan Way,
Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005.
Phone: 503-469-6010. Fax 503-326-
5066. Web: bonamici.house. gov/
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 313
Hart Senate Office Building, Wash-
ington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-
3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D):
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone:
202-224-5244. Web: www.wyden.
senate.gov
• State Rep. Brad Witt (D):
State Capitol, 900 Court Street N.E.,
H-373, Salem, OR 97301. Phone:
503-986-1431. Web: www.leg.state.
or.us/witt/ Email: rep.bradwitt@
state.or.us
• State Rep. Deborah Boone (D):
900 Court St. N.E., H-481, Salem,
OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-1432.
Email: rep.deborah boone@state.
or.us District office: P.O. Box 928,
Cannon Beach, OR 97110. Phone:
503-986-1432. Web: www.leg.state.
or.us/ boone/
• State Sen. Betsy Johnson (D):
State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E.,
S-314, Salem, OR 97301. Telephone:
503-986-1716. Email: sen.betsy john-
son@state.or.us Web: www.betsy-
johnson.com District Office: P.O.
Box R, Scappoose, OR 97056. Phone:
503-543-4046. Fax: 503-543-5296.
Astoria office phone: 503-338-1280.
• Port of Astoria: Executive
Director, 10 Pier 1 Suite 308, Asto-
ria, OR 97103. Phone: 503-741-3300.
Email: admin@portofastoria.com
• Clatsop County Board of Com-
missioners: c/o County Manager, 800
Exchange St., Suite 410, Astoria, OR
97103. Phone: 503-325-1000.