My last Nerditorial about the Gateway Pacific Terminal was reasonably well received.
Another person might just leave well enough alone, but another person is not writing these articles.
As I posted earlier, I am currently unable to either support or oppose GPT. In my last article, I mentioned a condition under which I might be willing to take a position in opposition to GPT.
That condition is low unemployment for local labor. If there are enough jobs locally for organized labor so that they are about as employed as any other sector of the local workforce, then I could take a position against GPT on the grounds that local labor is not in such dire economic straits that inviting SSA Marine into the County is an urgent economic necessity.
But it occurs to me that this sounds, by implication, to be a stance that is anti-GPT by default.
There must be a condition under which I would be willing to take a stance in support of GPT for this position I find myself in to be one of genuine ambivalence and not just contrarian neutrality.
I have finally fleshed out that position.
I am willing to support development of a heavy industrial port facility at Cherry Point, provided that it is built and operated in a manner that is 100% carbon neutral.
Yep. Carbon neutral. Completely carbon neutral.
That means a port facility that is built in a carbon neutral fashion, is operated in a carbon neutral fashion, and that every ton of material shipped is so shipped in a carbon neutral fashion.
...and... I... see... some hands going up in the audience. Understandable.
Just bear with me a while longer.
To achieve this, I think that the Whatcom County Code could include statutory law that mandates that all new industrial development in Whatcom County be required to run in a carbon neutral manner. But we should start with heavy industry in general, since that is the business that has the potential for having the largest carbon footprint of any business. And we should prioritize heavy industry in specific that is placed in ecologically sensitive locations such as Cherry Point.
Lets go to the County Charter for a moment...
The first words of the Charter are... "Treasuring the many wonders of our unique environment"... go ahead and read for yourself.
I submit that Cherry Point qualifies as a wonder of our unique environment, and we are therefore statutorily obliged to treasure that wonder. I further submit that letting SSA Marine just crap all over Cherry Point is incompatible with this clause of our charter.
[Note: The following portion of this Nerditorial is NSFWC... (Not Safe For Whatcom County). Everyone else, proceed at your leisure.]
The issue with GPT goes beyond the port itself... most folks are concerned about a mysterious fabled substance that we dare not speak of in polite company. A substance I shall refer to by the code name... oal-kay.
This... oal-kay... is the focus of a great deal of anxiety and social friction locally, and globally. I will address this mystery substance soon, but there are other concerns that are being eclipsed at the moment.
There are environmental impacts... significant impacts... associated with building any heavy industrial facility anywhere. And even if you assume that the heavy industrial facility is shipping... compostable solar panels or fair-trade Unobtainium... there are significant environmental impacts associated with merely building a port facility itself.
So, it matters how everything is exported from Whatcom County to the global marketplace. As difficult as it is to see past... oal-kay... the fact remains that any 21st Century port facility needs to be completely carbon neutral for reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with... you know... oal-kay... and everything to do with the fact that its the 21st Century.
A port facility at Cherry Point must be required to be carbon neutral no matter what it is shipping.
Onto the matter of... oal-kay...
The only way I can think of to ship... oal-kay... from GPT in a carbon neutral manner is to require the purchase of enough carbon offsets to fully account for every ton of... oal-kay... shipped.
That's it.
No... uh... ean-klay... oal-kay... echnology-tay... just regular-ass meat-and-potatoes off-the-rack already-in-existence purchase of carbon offsets with plain old coin of the realm.
Since this is an actual real-world response to the problem of... oal-kay... and ossil-fay eul-fay ependence-day... it is far from perfect. Its primary tangible virtue (and perhaps its only tangible virtue) is that it causes the cost of the...oal-kay... to come much closer into line with the true cost associated with burning...oal-kay... for power.
And... I... see... hands waving furiously in the air now... thank you for your patience...
You sir... what is your question...?
The question is, and I'm paraphrasing a bit here... "Am I clinically insane or just under-medicated?" Is that about right? Good.
No, I am not, at the moment, clinically insane, and am... in fact... certified as neither a danger to myself or others... and I am also fully medicated.
You, young man... what is your question...?
Hmm... I see... huh...
The question is, and I'm paraphrasing again... "Since oal-kay is almost entirely made of carbon... won't that require the purchase of a tremendous amount of carbon offsets?" Is that about right? Good.
Yes. It will require the purchase of what has been scientifically determined to be a metric [fecal matter] ton (citation needed) of carbon offsets to allow GPT to qualify as operating in a carbon neutral fashion if it ships the amount of oal-kay currently projected.
You ma'am... what is your question...?
Uh huh... uh huh... hmmm...
The question is, paraphrased again, "Wouldn't that make... oal-kay... extremely expensive to ship from GPT?" Is that about right? Good.
Excellent question.
Yes. Yes, it would.
A follow-up question? Excellent... just don't bogart the Q and A time, please...
Uh huh... uh HUH...
The question, paraphrased, is "Won't we make it impossible for SSA Marine to be competitive if we impose such a condition on them?" Is that about right? Great.
The short answer... hell to the no.
The long answer... this is what the auto industry said about requirements for safety belts (and virtually every other safety device that has been standard in cars for decades) and it wasn't true then. This is what the entire private sector cried when they were told they had to pay a government mandated minimum wage to workers. Business always bawls like baby any time a requirement is imposed upon them. And, yet, incredibly, the economy wasn't destroyed by requiring cars to be safer, or requiring workers to be paid slightly more money. And it won't be destroyed by this, either.
Yes, young lady, you have a question...?
Ah, this is an additional follow up to the previous question... outstanding...
Hmmm.... Mmm hmmm.... ah...
The question, paraphrased... "Why would those in Whatcom County who oppose any shipment of oal-kay from GPT support this approach?" Is that about right? Okay.
This is a tough one, and by that virtue, the best pretend question that my pretend audience has asked thus far. Well asked, fictitious foil...
The only honest answer to this concern is that this approach actually enforces the original and publicly stated intent of allowing heavy industrial zoning in Cherry Point. That intent was for a multi-use port facility in fact, not a multi-use port facility in name only.
As things stand now, it is my understanding that SSA Marine will be shipping... oal-kay... and just enough of other stuff to barely qualify as a multi-use port on paper. It was never the understanding of the local stakeholders that Cherry Point would be used to ship almost nothing but... oal-kay... for about the first two decades of its operating life.
If you accept the premise that a 21st Century port facility must be run in a carbon neutral fashion, then the most likely form of port facility that meets that standard would be a multi-use port that doesn't function in the manner for which SSA Marine is clearly planning as we speak. But only if carbon neutrality is imposed on SSA Marine by a government mandate.
Those of you who don't want anything built at all at Cherry Point need to admit that, and stop focusing exclusively on... oal-kay. If your primary concern is the...oal-kay... as you appear to be claiming, then you should have no objection to a facility being built at Cherry Point that is an authentic multi-use port, particularly if it is an authentically carbon neutral port, since the land is currently zoned heavy industrial.
I appreciate that this is not happy or welcome information to many of you, but remember... those of you who stand in opposition to... oal-kay... currently enjoy the advantage of having the facts on your side. I urge all due vigilance to prevent the facts from getting muddled now. Many of those who oppose you are famously factose intolerant.
I have time for one more fictitious question before throwing this to the comment thread...
You Ma'am... what is your question?
Uh, huh... hmmm... well... I see...
The question is... paraphrased of course... "What qualifications to I possess to make any of these claims?" I'm not putting words in your mouth? That's the gist of your question? Sweet!
The answer is... none whatsoever!
I'm a blogger.
An unemployed blogger, at that.
In fact, I am unencumbered by either gainful employment or a college degree.
So, let that inform any further comment from the non-fictitious members of the audience.
But in parting let me make one of my many pop culture references that makes blog articles like this somewhat more entertaining...
Remember the movie this image is culled from? The Hunger Games?
The protagonist, Katniss, is from a place where oal-kay is mined. The reason she and her companion are dressed in black, and are on fire, is to accentuate that they are from an oal-kay mining province.
They were expected to dress like oal-kay miners, and instead they dressed like an abstraction of oal-kay itself. Recall how the protagonist didn't just survive the game according to the rules of the 1%, portrayed by a scenery-chewing Donald Sutherland. She changed the equation, and played the game on her terms. She subverted expectations. And she won.
You want to be like Katniss. You don't want to be like President Evil-Donald-Sutherland.
We find ourselves in a modern day pre-quel of this dystopic science-fiction blockbuster.
I personally have no interest in being treated like a pawn in a game of political blood-sport by the well-coined powers that be. Yet, that is how this entire oal-kay matter feels to me.
I believe it is necessary to change expectations on this matter. I just don't know how to achieve that change just yet.
And on that note... are there any further questions?
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