It’s time to put aside the nonsense and build the plant

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Well, here we go again. A public hearing held in Longview to discuss the proposed methanol plant in Kalama was extremely non-productive. A lottery was created, as a way to keep it fair due to the number of individuals who wanted to speak on the record concerning the project. Although a great idea, it was an epic failure!

I stood in line and registered early, only to wait five hours in hopes that my name would be called so I could speak in favor of the proposed project. My name was never called, mainly because of the large number of individuals who opposed the project attending the meeting. Those in opposition were mainly from outside the area. Where is the fairness? There should have been two buckets of names, one for the project, and one against, those names should have been pulled in an alternating fashion.

Also, the SEIS decision should be based on data and facts not the number of people that one side can bus in from all over at least two states.

I listened to five hours of testimony, and for the most part the testimony against the proposal was from non-residents and environmental groups. It was emotional and not data/scientific based. NW Innovation Works has received all the permits they have applied for so far from Washington regulators, using facts and scientific data to make sure the permits conformed to Washington’s strict environmental laws. 

Also, there is no single project in Washington state that would do more to reduce greenhouse gases. It accomplishes this by replacing coal with methanol made from natural gas in China, and this makes progress on fighting climate change. Also, they are implementing zero liquid discharge, which means not a single drop of water will be released into the river, which is huge. 



Let NW Innovation Works build the plant, so jobs can be created, and our area can generate some revenue. Also, the sooner the plant is constructed, the sooner greenhouse gases can stop needlessly entering our atmosphere. 

The fact we are still talking about whether to allow this project after four years is completely unreasonable. We need to look at the scientific facts, this project is on point with environmental safeguards.

Let’s get behind it and get this project built!