10:49 am - August 13, 2013 — Updated: 10:49 am - August 13, 2013 Our policies should support U.S. workers I have waited for someone to state my concerns on oil terminals and it has failed to occur. This discussion has completely disregarded my frustration about these proposals to bring oil and coal through our communities. We are taking all the risks and will receive about one or two percent in return. I doubt that 100 jobs will benefit the Harbor. It will probably be 20 or 30 jobs. I see that 95 percent of these valuable resources will be shipped overseas and other nations will benefit from our raw resources. A small group of people outside out state, probably outside our country, will receive all the profits. If an oil leak occurs, we will be left holding the bag. Our fish, oysters and wildlife will be destroyed for generations. We are supposed to trust the experts to insure the rails safety. They don’t care. They only want our resources and our money. They will do the least possible if our Harbor is injured by spills. I said this has been the acceptable business pattern for the last 50 to 60 years and I stand by that. We will get a quick buck for 2 or 3 years to construct these terminals. After that, almost nothing. We need to reward businesses that keep jobs and resources within our counties, states and country. We should severely penalize any group that sends our resources off our borders, whether it be to another state and especially to another country. We continue to destroy our middle class opportunities by shipping our economy overseas. I would support these terminals if regulation required at least 70 percent of these resources were required to be used within U.S. borders. Most of these fuels will be used by competing nations and the jobs associated with them will be outside the U.S. They will manufacture all the side products associated with the oil and coal. Then they will ship these products back here expecting someone here to have the purchase power to buy them. We don’t have those jobs! Who is going to be able to buy these goods? We will get almost nothing. I do not understand how we allow ourselves, as a nation, to be abused and taken advantage of. As a member of the Quinault Nation, I am just as upset when I see all of our timber being shipped out. Most of this product is shipped overseas. Why don’t we penalize these practices and try to promote using these products here, on our reservation, or at least within the United States? We need politicians and representatives who support Americans in the long term. They should not trust policy that continues giving away jobs to overseas markets at slave wages that only enrich a few. Stephen R. Frank Ocean Shores
Posted on: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 02:18:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015