The 600 Pound Gorilla in the Room

Submitted to Shelton Blog by Tom Davis

In a recent announcement, AREVA signed an agreement with the Olympia Vicinity Building and Construction Trades Council. The idea is to get union members to put pressure on local politicians so Adage can get on with their nefarious endeavor.

This latest effort is a clear indication that the Adage public relations machine has come to a well deserved, though long overdue, end.

Time to dump the amateurs and call up the big guns.

Of course, the agreement itself is just another public relations scheme. But you have to admit, it beats the hell out of having to listen to a bunch of rag-tag schmucks try to convince us how much they care about our well being.

The agreement dictates that most of the construction jobs to build the new Adage incinerator will go to local labor union workers. Of course, by local they mean Thurston County...close to the capitol local...not economically depressed, Mason County local.

But here’s the thing: Adage, indeed the entire biomass industry, is up against something far bigger than a required Environmental Impact Statement, and the protestations of some local residents. They’re up against a rapidly mounting body of scientific evidence that will ultimately debunk their claims of carbon neutrality, and make fact the effects of biomass incineration on public health. And one thing the biomass industry doesn’t want to contend with is the truth.

Still, due to the recent losses opponents of biomass have incurred in our local courts, it is likely the AREVA legal team will be emboldened to challenge the SEPA required, Environmental Impact Statement on some technicality.

So hold onto your hats Mason County, it appears the 600 pound gorilla has just slipped, unnoticed, into the room.

SHELTON BLOG NOTE:

Today is the deadline for EIS comments. These letters are legal documents responding to a particular legal EIS action, regardless of the subsequent events re: that EIS. We can continue to submit comments in writing until 5:00 pm today. We can continue to contact Barbara Adkins with our questions about the recent developments indefinitely.

Email Barbara Adkins: BarbarA@co.mason.wa.us or call her at 427-9670, ext. 286

Visit http://www.incineratorfreemasoncounty.org/action.htm for sample letters or an online comment submission application.

Link to pdf of Barbara Adkins' letter re: most recent EIS developments

Link to pdf of Memorandum of Understanding
(aka Memorandum of the Underhanded)