POST adage SYNDROME (PaS)
Submitted to Shelton Blog by Tom Davis Mason County Progressive
Before we all move on to the next misguided, misunderstood, misconstrued, misinterpreted, misread and misjudged proposal supported by our local elected brainiacs, some questions still remain about adage (they are no longer deserving of upper case status).
1. Who is/was adage? Although they presented themselves as a partnership between Areva and Duke Energy, there is evidence to suggest that adage was/is nothing more than a group of venture capitalists looking to make a killing in the fertile political climate of biomass energy. Surely it was the worst PR effort ever launched; the whole campaign reeked of cheap suits and Aqua Velva.If current events have taught us anything, it is that much of industry would do away with all labor in favor of complete automation, or, lacking that option, employ the cheapest labor “globalization” will allow. In the eyes of multi-national corporations, the American work force is as expendable as the dinosaur, a casualty of the truly open market and collateral of modern business ideology.
2. How is it that a corporation that was formed in October of 2009 trotted into town a mere three months later, and was given unprecedented access to everything but an official lap dance? (Remember, these guys hadn’t built so much as a camp stove, much less a 65 MW “fluidized boiler”.) Why did not a single mainstream official wanted to engage in any level of critical thinking when it came to the adage proposal? Why did they not want to address public petitions, health concerns, economic concerns, water pollution concerns, traffic concerns, erosion concerns, tax concerns, road maintenance concerns, quality of life concerns, or even the overall viability of the proposal itself? (Makes me want to take a look at that list of investors.)
3. Why did the Port of Shelton seem so eager to sign a lease option, and negotiate the final lease with adage before ORCAA & SEPA had issued the required permits? Say what you will about Port Commissioner Jay Hupp (I’ll wait till you’re through), but he’s never struck me as a stupid man; arrogant, insensitive and rabid, maybe; personality like a wolverine, to be sure; and disturbingly giddy when it comes to strapping a jet engine to the back of a drag racer, but never stupid. Still, his actions defied fundamental prudent business protocol. Why?
4. Considering that the adage proposal was likely DOA as of December 31, 2010, (when their $75M government subsidy was brought into question), why did they hang on till March? Was it because the proposal and ongoing permit process was the only product they ever successfully produced, and they now intend to sell that position to the next bio-sucker? Will Simpson Lumber pick up the adage ball? Stranger things have happened.
5. And now for the 64 million dollar question: how is that, in the shadow of a near national financial meltdown, with billions in pension funds lost, a real estate market in ruins, and industry giants abandoning America for foreign shores, that we, the public, remain loyal to the imaginary notion that there exists a partnership between industry and labor?
It is wise to remember that jobs are incidental to industry profit margins, they are not the objective. Yet, we, the American work force, insist on protecting the very institutions aimed at lowering our wages, destroying our ability to bargain collectively, and exploiting the most vulnerable of our communities by siting within them their most destructive endeavors.
Why we continue to cling to such one-sided relationships is perhaps the biggest question of all.
Strong partnership between industry and politicians!!!
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