A5
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 2019
Bill: Sawmills would be exempt from the cap
Northwest Oregon industries
affected by cap and trade
401
Facilities and 2017 emissions, in metric tons
4
101
Wash.
(Carbon dioxide equivalent emissions are anthropogenic.)
Astoria
1. Georgia-Pacific Wauna Mill
92326 Taylorville Road, Clatskanie
Emissions
257,824
Knappa
Warrenton
30
2. Portland General Electric-Beaver Generating Plant
80997 Kallunki Road, Clatskanie
Emissions
1.01 million
202
Georgia-Pacific Wauna Mill
Ore.
ia River
umb
C ol
1
2 3
Clatskanie
5
Longview
Area in
detail
4
30
Ore.
Rainier
Seaside
47
CLATSOP
3. Portland General Electric-Port Westward Unit 2
80997 Kallunki Road, Clatskanie
Emissions
104,700
101
Deer Island
St. Helens
53
4. United States Gypsum Co.
29073 Dike Road, Rainier
Emissions 42,882
Ocean
47
5. Dyno Nobel Inc.
63149 Columbia River Hwy., Deer Island
Emissions
198,275
6. Cascades Tissue Group
1300 Kaster Road, St. Helens
Emissions 52,141
6
industries. The state’s econ-
omy would grow by 2.5 per-
cent and add 23,000 jobs by
2050 under the proposed bill,
the analysis concluded.
Job killer
The proposed legislation
has raised concerns that ris-
ing fuel and other costs will
create a competitive disad-
vantage and drive out high-
er-paying industrial jobs to
6
5
Vancouver
Portland General Electric- Beaver plant
WASHINGTON
26
Portland
Tillamook
Edward Stratton and Alan
Kenaga/EO Media Group
Source: Oregon Dept. of
Environmental Quality
30
5
TILLAMOOK
6
47
10 miles
101
states and countries without
carbon pricing. NW Natu-
ral has warned the bill will
increase fuel prices 13 per-
cent by 2021, 44 percent by
2035 and 60 percent by 2040.
Employees at Georgia-Pa-
cifi c, owned by Koch Indus-
tries, have testifi ed before
the Legislature that the com-
pany might shift business
away from the mill to avoid
the additional costs. The pulp
YAMHILL
18
205
5
and paper industry has called
for a blanket exemption from
carbon caps.
“Oregon is almost certain
to lose jobs to states that have
lesser environmental regula-
tions and legislation result-
ing in far higher emissions,”
Bill Kerr, president of the
United Steelworkers Union
Local 1097 that represents
more than 600 employees
at Wauna, said during testi-
testifi ed last month that Ore-
gon’s mills are signifi cantly
ahead of the curve in reduc-
ing carbon emissions and
using hydroelectric, bio-
mass and other carbon-neu-
tral power sources.
Without an exemption
for trade-intensive facilities,
he said, “Oregon will lose
jobs and global emissions
will increase. Losing Ore-
gon jobs to other states or
nations, while merely shift-
ing the emissions elsewhere,
does more harm than good.”
Job creator
COLUMBIA
26
Cannon
Beach
.
Wash
Ore.
California and Quebec, Can-
ada, allowing Oregon busi-
nesses to buy allowances
from elsewhere.
The legislation, still
being ironed out in Salem,
includes carve-outs for some
industries.
Sawmills, where the
majority of emissions are
biogenic, or naturally infl u-
enced, would be exempt
from the cap. Electric utili-
ties like Pacifi Corp, which
serves most of Clatsop
County through Pacifi c
Power, and Portland General
Electric, which has large nat-
ural gas plants in Columbia
County, would receive free
allowances through 2030
to account for work done to
phase out coal power.
Gas utilities like NW Nat-
ural, the state’s largest, would
not receive free allowances.
T rade-exposed
facili-
ties like Wauna Mill would
receive free allowances the
fi rst year.
Companies would pay
for an increasing percent-
age of pollution allowances
in proportion to the percent-
age decrease in the cap on
emissions between 2022 and
2050. Georgia-Pacifi c would
have to purchase an esti-
mated $123,000 worth of
allowances in 2022, its bill
increasing as the pollution
cap lowers and the company
becomes more responsible
for covering allowances.
An independent analy-
sis by Berkeley Economic
Advising and Research
showed that increases in
energy prices resulting from
the bill would be outweighed
by the job creation in clean
Pacific
Continued from Page A1
mony last month.
An economist for his
union estimated the region
could lose as many as 2,500
direct and indirect jobs if
a mill like Wauna was to
close, costing state and local
governments more than $20
million in revenue, Kerr
said.
Chris McCabe, executive
director of the Northwest
Pulp and Paper Association,
Those in support of the
Clean Energy Jobs Bill have
hailed it as a potential shot
in the arm for battling cli-
mate change and building a
more climate-friendly econ-
omy, potentially producing
an estimated $700 million a
year from selling pollution
permits.
Among the leading propo-
nents are members of Oregon
Business for Climate, a coa-
lition of around 100 medium
and large companies, includ-
ing Astoria’s Fort George
Brewery.
“As members, we share
in the organization’s mis-
sion of reducing our state-
wide
emissions
while
strengthening
Oregon’s
economy,”
Jack
Har-
ris, the co-owner of Fort
George, testifi ed last month
before the Legislature. “We
believe that the cap-and-
trade model that is the foun-
dation of (the Clean Energy
Jobs Bill) provides the low-
est-cost option for achiev-
ing our reduction targets
while also incentivizing and
fostering innovation to Ore-
gon’s economy.”
Clearcutting: ‘Most Oregonians don’t enjoy such protections for their drinking water’
Continued from Page A1
sediments and temperatures
in waterways, endangering
rural communities.
While many municipali-
ties — including Astoria —
control the forested water-
sheds that provide drinking
water, smaller and less
affl uent communities are
often dependent on water-
ways that run through pri-
vate timberland, according
to proponents.
“Unfortunately,
most
Oregonians don’t enjoy
such protections for their
drinking water,” said Greg
Haller, executive director
of the Pacifi c Rivers envi-
ronmental group.
Haller said the evidence
is “incontrovertible” that
existing protections under
the Oregon Forest Prac-
tices Act are insuffi cient to
ensure safe drinking water.
The laws and regulations
have been infl uenced by
“Wall Street foresters” who
stand the most to lose from
HB 2656, he said.
Logging practices are
aggravating water supply
problems that will grow
more serious over time with
climate change, said John
Talberth, senior economist
with the Sustainable Energy
and Economy Network.
Streamfl ows in for-
ests planted roughly four
decades ago are 50 percent
lower than in forests with
trees between 150 to 500
years old, said Talberth.
Clear cutting,
pesti-
cide-spraying and fertiliza-
tion are conducive to the
kind of toxic algal blooms
that occurred in Salem’s
drinking water reservoir
last year, he said.
Risky activities should
be prohibited and regula-
tions should instead fol-
low “ecological forestry”
principles, Talberth said.
“These practices are win-
win-win solutions for
landowners, workers and
communities.”
Opponents of the bill,
including many small for-
estland owners, say the pro-
posed restrictions are not
only uneconomical, but
unnecessary.
They point to a fi nding
by Oregon’s Department of
Environmental Quality that
water quality conditions
are most commonly rated
“excellent” and “good” in
forests compared to other
land types.
The agency also deter-
mined forests contained
the smallest proportion of
“poor” and “very poor”
water quality sites com-
pared to cities, farmland
and rangeland.
“Contemporary
prac-
tices protect our water,”
said Maryanne Reiter, a
hydrologist with the Wey-
erhaeuser timber company.
Federal studies have
confi rmed that rules against
pesticide drift prevent
unsafe herbicides in water-
ways, while also indicat-
ing sediment levels remain
similar before and after log-
ging, she said.
Sedimentation is more
closely related to an area’s
geology, rainfall and fi re
history than land use prac-
tices, Reiter said.
“House Bill 2656 is an
unnecessary and extreme
solution in search of a prob-
lem,” said Mary Anne Coo-
per, vice president of public
policy for the Oregon Farm
Bureau.
By eliminating the incen-
tive to keep lands in timber
production, the proposal
would threaten the conver-
sion of forests to other uses,
she said.
The prohibition against
pesticides would hinder the
fi ght against invasive spe-
cies in forests while also
banning the use of common
“bug spray” at camp sites,
Cooper said.
A lack of management
would leave forests more
vulnerable to wildfi res,
which in recent years have
predominantly occurred on
federal lands with greatly
reduced timber harvest lev-
els, said Peter Sikora, CEO
of the Giustina Resources
timber company.
“You can’t simply leave
it alone. Fire will take its
course,” he said.
Free
Concert
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In concert Wednesday, April 3 • 7 p.m.
Liberty Theatre • Astoria
Arrest: The confusion was over
which patient instigated the fi ght
Continued from Page A1
was complete, Baker was
cleared by the board and
returned to work in January.
But the board chairwoman
and another board member
resigned in protest.
The Oregon Health
Authority review was criti-
cal of the respite center staff
and Baker.
Video footage of the fi ght
showed the wrong patient
was arrested. The program
manager wanted to contact
police and alerted Baker,
who was on-call that night,
but Baker initially advised
her to wait until the next
morning. After the program
manager grew uncomfort-
able with the decision and
reached out a second time,
Baker authorized her to have
police look at the video.
Baker asked the Ore-
gon Health Authority to
consider making correc-
tions to the review after
the OTIS investigation.
She believed — correctly
— that the state would not
substantiate an allegation
of neglect by respite center
staff.
Saerom England, a
spokeswoman for the health
authority, said the two pro-
cesses are separate. The
health authority’s review
looked at whether the respite
center was fulfi lling state
licensing requirements and
following state rules, while
OTIS examined a specifi c
fi nding of patient neglect.
“We do not plan to make
any changes,” England said
in an email.
Baker said the agency
appreciates and respects
the health authority’s over-
sight, “but we believe
OTIS did a more thorough
investigation.”
“From my perspective,
the fact that staff were not
responsible for a wrongful
arrest was a really important
conclusion to the investiga-
tion,” she said.
The confusion, the differ-
ent investigations showed,
was over which patient
instigated the fi ght. The
patient who was arrested
was known to be aggressive
and was bleeding and agi-
tated when police arrived.
The other patient involved
apparently admitted to
police that he was at fault,
but it was not clear to police
until the video footage
was reviewed a few hours
later.
Before it was sorted out,
the patient was arrested
for disorderly conduct and
criminal mischief, and then
arrested again for criminal
trespass when he returned to
the respite center after being
released from county jail.
No charges were ever
fi led.
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