Coal news and updates

This time, Catherine Mater wasn't holding the gavel for the Oregon Transportation Commission.

 

The board's former chairwoman was simply public speaker No. 42.

 

Like dozens of other speakers at a Thursday meeting in Salem, Mater was given three minutes to speak and a time limit enforced by a yellow-and-red warning light. (She was allowed to run two minutes long.)

 

Mater's appearance capped a swift turnabout for the Corvallis civil engineer, who was fired this week by Gov. John Kitzhaber after casting a tie-breaking vote last August dooming a $2 million grant that would've benefited Ambre Energy, the company proposing to annually export 8.8 million tons of coal through the state.

 

On Thursday, with the grant project she rejected coming back to the commission for approval, Mater addressed her former colleagues, telling them again that the project should not be funded. With Mater out of the way, the grant to repair a World War II-era dock at the Port of St. Helens appears likely to be approved next month.

 

Mater accused the port of being untruthful in its application seeking a subsidy to help Ambre, saying it failed to note significant unresolved state permitting hurdles.

 

She didn't criticize fellow commissioners or Kitzhaber. She saved most criticism for port officials who now say the project had little to do with coal.

 

"Anybody who says that the project wasn't connected to a coal project simply is not correct," Mater said.

 

Mater's sacking underscores the divisiveness of the politics of coal, even in Oregon, a state known for its large environmental lobby. And it shows just how much influence lies with state lawmakers including state Sen. Betsy Johnson, who represents the project area. 

 

Mater said pressure from Johnson and other coal supporters had forced her out, putting Kitzhaber, a coal export opponent, in the puzzling position of ousting one of his own recent appointees for opposing state spending to benefit coal exports.

 

Until Mater's decisive vote against the coal project, the commission had approved more than $380 million in spending through a program called Connect Oregon. And in nine years, the commission had never questioned the list of projects assembled by ODOT stakeholders, regional officials and staff.

 

But Mater's activism threatened to stoke discontent among key lawmakers when the Kitzhaber administration is seeking money from the Legislature to address what the Oregon Department of Transportation calls a $5.1 billion backlog in seismic upgrades and other projects. Last week, Oregon legislative leaders and business groups expressed support for increasing vehicle taxes to fund ODOT's wish list.

 

As the coal project's permits have stalled, Port of St. Helens officials have downplayed coal's importance to the $2 million grant. Ambre's coal terminal couldn't be built until 2016 at the earliest – if a judge overturned a key state permit denial -- and court appeals are likely to drag on even longer.

 

"This is not an application for a project for coal," Paula Miranda, deputy director of the Port of St. Helens, told commissioners Thursday. "This is not an Ambre project, it's a port project."

 

Improving the dock to allow larger ships could help the neighboring oil train terminal or a proposed methanol facility, Miranda said.

 

But the port's application directly tied the project to Ambre. The purpose, the application says, "is to allow transfer of coal from barge to deep-draft ship."

 

Project opponents lambasted Mater's firing, urging commissioners to stand up to Kitzhaber. 

 

"Send him a message and tell him that sort of backroom politics is not the way Oregon is run," said Brady Preheim of Clean Columbia County, an environmental group. "This is not Chicago, Illinois. It's Oregon."

 

The commission will now be run by Tammy Baney, a Deschutes County commissioner who supported the coal grant. Kitzhaber announced her appointment late Thursday. Kitzhaber picked her over vice chairman David Lohman, who had also opposed the coal grant.

 

"I look forward to working with Tammy on statewide transportation policy and a potential transportation package in this upcoming legislative session," Kitzhaber said in a prepared statement. "She is a proven leader who cares about Oregon's communities and ensuring we have a modern, safe, efficient transportation system for the 21st century."

 

 

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/