Episode 50: An environmentalist and a manufacturing advocate on the future of the Tideflats

The future of heavy industry and fossil fuel businesses on Tacoma’s industrial Tideflats has been hotly debated since a proposal to build a methanol plant there made headlines and shocked a lot of folks a few years ago. We talked to two people who have been on opposite sides of this debate: Meredith Neal, director of the Manufacturing Industrial Council for the South Sound, and Melissa Malott, executive director of Citizens for a Healthy Bay. We asked them to go in-depth on their views about what kind of industry should be allowed to grow and expand there in the next five years, and the next 30 years. We even found some common ground. The gravity of this conversation weighed a bit heavily on your hosts, as you can hear in the intro. It’s impossible to drill down on this topic without talking about the potential consequences of the liquefied natural gas plant being built on the Tideflats, and without considering the urgency of climate change. ***Click the first link for the answer to a question that popped up late in the episode about whether a TOTE ship in Puerto Rico is solely being run on LNG, or on a mix of LNG and bunker fuel when it gets close to shore. (According to this article Meredith was right, and as of 2015 that ship was solely run on LNG. TOTE was proud of and excited about that, because it was thought to be a cleaner-burning and much more environmentally-friendly fuel — and it still is thought of that way, by Meredith, Puget Sound Energy and others.) Melissa noted in an email reply that: “PSCAA’s own calculations show that there is no decrease in small particle pollution close to shore if we switch to LNG.” She included tables that “are directly from PSCAA’s final Life Cycle Analysis Calculations on the sheets titled ‘End use TOTE – LNG Vessel’ and ‘End use TOTE – MGO Vessel’. “These tables show that PM10 and PM2.5 emissions are the same when burning LNG and Marine Gas-oil, within 200nm (nautical miles) of shore. For public health, this is the area we care about.” Links Professional Mariner: American Ship Review 2016: Isla Bella Electric vehicle registrations as of Dec. 31, 2018 The Seattle Times: Governor Inslee was right to pull his support for Tacoma LNG project The News Tribune: LNG site resumes permit process after new report backs findings of earlier review City of Tacoma: Tideflats Interim Regulations The News Tribune: Tacoma methanol project canceled Channel 253 membership