By John Stark
Many Gateway Pacific Terminal opponents seem to be furious that backers of the project — in their words — “hijacked” the Thursday, Nov. 29 Ferndale scoping meeting.
GPT backers did show up in force in an obviously well-organized effort to dominate the public testimony at the meeting. This strikes some opponents of GPT as unfair and underhanded. I just got off the phone with a person who assured me that every green-shirted supporter of GPT at Thursday’s meeting had been paid by SSA Marine to be there.
I have fired off an email to Gateway Pacific spokesman Craig Cole to see what he has to say about that.
Let me volunteer three observations:
–1. Thursday was a scoping meeting. It was a not a town hall affair intended to gauge the level of public support or opposition for the project. It was part of a process to gauge what specific issues should be studied as part of the permitting process. Some opponents and some backers of the project seemed to understand this. Some did not.
In any event, both supporters and opponents have until Jan. 21, 2013 to send in scoping comments to the regulatory agencies. Agency personnel insist that written comments get the same weight as those spoken into a microphone, even though written comments may offer far less emotional satisfaction to the commenter.
Here’s where to send written comments:
By email: comments@eisgatewaypacificwa.gov.
By mail: GPT/Custer Spur EIS, 1100 112th Ave. NE, Suite 400, Bellevue, WA 98004.
–2. Lots of people in Whatcom County are supportive of Gateway Pacific. You might not like that, but it is awfully hard to deny.
–3. Demeaning the character or the intelligence of those people is a dubious political strategy. It strikes me as morally dubious too.
My personal belief is that the industrial civilization that provides the power to run this blog is going to have to undergo some dramatic changes in the near future if we want to avoid any of several possible collapse scenarios.
But as of now, the progressives who show up at public meetings to try to promote those changes are, in effect, asking other people to make some significant short-term financial sacrifices for the good of the cause. Those other people — longshoremen, construction workers, coal miners, etc. — are not enthusiastic about this.
Is there any way of addressing the concerns of these working people, while also addressing the real need to move as rapidly as possible to a sustainable energy system? Is riding roughshod over union labor the only practical course of action? I don’t pretend to have answers to those questions.
P.S. Update: I just got an email from a union carpenter who says she is opposed to GPT. I’m sure there are others like her out there. I hope you’ll comment here, or contact me directly if you prefer.
Mark Bennett
The scoping web page allows comments on the process. You should post your concerns there.
I have commented in a more positive way that the agents who own the shell company that wants control over our environment and community health, wealth and well-being should be required to come forward to become accountable named fiduciaries of our wealth. I pointed out that the insurance company Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.’s annual report names no one as an accountable person who is competent to manage a railroad. Also, I commented that our publicly elected decision-makers should be educated and competent to deal with the complexities of their fiduciary responsibility for our community wealth and natural capital. I see no reason why there should not be at least as orderly a fiduciary process as that required for retirement plans, since the values at stake are greater than all but the largest retirement plan.
In recent years, the DOL, which regulates retirement plan fiduciaries, has dealt with two issues that seem relevant: 1) promoters and salesmen who would control fiduciary decisions as to investment in their product with no personal accountability for suitability; and 2) the competence of fiduciaries to deal with the specific issues for which they are accountable.
The people who have engaged with Whatcom County on this dirty, toxic, noisy, disruptive project have all been pr types and outside attorneys. Good luck holding any of them accountable!
This is the same type of potentially fraudulent scheme that was outlined in a three-part article in the New York Times this week end about the states and communities that were stung by manufacturers’ cons that they would build a plant that would employ locals, but only if they were given land and tax breaks. Some retailers also play this game.
Dialogue is healthy ~ and John ~ your dinosaur comment is immature ~ hardly the sign of an intelectual far searching mind ~ what we will get if we decide to be the generation to make the end of caustic industries that leave devastation in the communities that work and live in communities impacted by coal mining, fracking, and those along the transportation routes when manmade pipelines break and coal dust flies cause it isn’t cost effective to cover the cars or mine with closed air systems.
It took years for the oil companies to pay individuals and damages in Alaska and whole towns went bankrupt and homes were lost and repair to the ecosystems and wildlife are still being met. WE CAN SAY NO TO COAL AND PIPELINES ON OUR SHORES
We can say yes to lightrail and shoreline reconstruction that benefits the growth of wildlife habitat.
We can say yes to solar and wind and wave energy and the construction of energy efficient housing and commercial districts.
We can plant the food forage forests for the generations to come and begin to grow as much food as possible to feed each and every hungry person in our country.
We can build systems that support equality and fairness, making the high goal
EVERYONE SAFE * EVERYONE FED * EVERYONE CLOTHED * EVERYONE EDUCATED *
EVERYONE HOUSED * EVERYONE SUPPORTED * EVERYONE CARED FOR * EVERYONE
We can do this ~ why wait
Alliance for Northwest Jobs and Exports is claiming the coal trains will be covered. Does anyone know if that’s possible?
From their FB page (http://www.facebook.com/AllianceForNorthwestJobsExports?fref=ts):
Alliance for Northwest Jobs & Exports Niles: We share your concerns about coal dust and have solutions in place to avoid this issue—simple solutions include covering the trains or spraying the coal down to ensure dust doesn’t drift.
Re covered cars:
Presumably, following the decline in coal use in the US, the rail car leasing companies and the railroads have thousands of coal cars sitting on sidings. Given the prospects for coal in 2012, who would invest in new covered cars?
Railroads have covered hoppers now; they just don’t pencil out for coal transport. They are used for lighter weight and more valuable cargo, which would otherwise experience unacceptable loss levels in transport, or be too environmentally damaging to pass muster with the EPA and other regulatory agencies.
Covered cars don’t work for coal primarily because of their impact on loading/unloading efficiencies. At Cherry Point, trains will essentially circle the facility and be dumped, two at a time, and continue around the track. With 9 or 10 loaded trains per day to unload, and with additional labor and equipment requirements to deal with the lids, BNSF might have to increase the siding capacity, and the process would definitely see increase costs in what is profitable because of the volume at projected levels, and anything eroding the thin margins could be a death knell for the whole proposal.
Terry,
I agree with Dan. I think covering the cars of a mile-long train would be cost prohibitive, even local dump trucks don’t want to cover their loads to drive down a highway.
But I wanted to comment on the clever way the sentence you posted was written:
“We share your concerns about coal dust and have solutions in place to avoid this issue—simple solutions include covering the trains or spraying the coal down to ensure dust doesn’t drift.”
They imply that “simple solutions” could “include covering the trains”. But they definitely didn’t say they would.
I’d be curious to know if anyone, anywhere in the U.S. covers coal train cars.
We knew there were SSA employees in line at Ferndale, placeholding. Now we have confirmation that they’re using day laborers as well. In Spokane, they bused them in at 8 a.m. this morning for a 4 p.m. scoping meeting. They’re making minimum wage. Let’s see, about 30 people times about $10 times 8 hours = $2400. Wish we had that kind of money to throw around.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/dec/04/shipping-of-coal-topic-of-hearing/
PS: If Whatcom Cty needs the terminal because we need the jobs, then how come Alliance for Northwest Jobs and Exports says they can’t get union volunteers to placehold because they’re all working?
Terry, I was wondering the same thing. I know quite a few rank-and-file who have told me they think this is a bad idea. They live here, too.
My understanding is that the technology to safely cover coal cars doesn’t exist. PRB coal breaks down very quickly when exposed to oxygen, begins smoldering, and offgasses methane and butane, I believe. Kaboom.