Wash. SLD: Stop obstructing our port work

The state of Washington has an opportunity to expand our ports and to secure the region’s position as a global trade leader for decades.

Private industry, using private capital, is ready right now to put people to work expanding our export facilities to allow us to export more bulk commodities — including ores and minerals like iron, coal and potash — as well as agricultural products including wheat, rye and other grains.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of folks who want to stop these projects, and in the end jobs won’t be created here and the exports will come from other countries.

In contrast, there is bipartisan support to keep Boeing manufacturing in the state. Gov. Jay Inslee is pitching in to help in that effort and has even asked for an expedited environmental review process.

The governor could have asked for a review of the environmental implications of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions where the components for these planes are built; many come from China where they use coal to power Boeing’s parts manufacturing.

Also to his credit, the governor chooses not to consider the GHG emissions from the utilization of planes manufactured at Boeing by the world’s airline industry, which is among the highest carbon-emitting activities in the world. We applaud him for these non-obstructionist decisions.

What we don’t applaud is the governor’s inconsistent approach to job creation. He takes a different approach when it comes to building trade and transportation jobs that would be created by the proposed new export facilities. There he wants a comprehensive review (read delay) of the effects the items being exported have on the world’s climate.

Inslee’s request caters to those who want to not just delay, but kill these projects and deny thousands of people construction employment as well as the many hundreds of permanent good middle-class working class jobs they will create.

It’s time for the governor and his “save the world” contingent to quit being obstructionists and allow these projects to proceed. We are not even asking for his help in creating all these jobs, even though most of the blue-collar folks who will be put to work voted for him.

All we are asking is that our governor allow the port expansions to proceed through the regular accepted environmental scoping and permitting processes.

The preceding letter was written by Herb Krohn, the SMART Transportation Division’s Washington state legislative director, and was published Aug. 8 by The News Tribune.