Good news for Linnton residents?

Lee van der Loo reports in this morning’s Tribune that Rappaport Energy Consulting has decided to build a new biodiesel refinery at the Port of Vancouver instead of in Portland. This may be good news for Linnton residents concerned about the safety of such plants adjacent to homes and a day care center, although the article also says Commissioner Randy Leonard says two other locations in Portland are still being considered for biodiesel production: “one at the Port of Portland and the other at an undisclosed location on the Willamette River.”

Chortle. That coyness is funny enough, given Linnton neighbor Pat Wagner’s ubiquitous e-mails and press releases attempting to draw attention to the neighborhood’s concerns about siting it there. If a biodiesel refinery is such good news for Portland, why not include the neighborhood being considered, in talks about how to make it happen? But the following lines also made me chuckle:

“Rappaport said he asked in his meetings with city staffers that he be allowed to meet with city commissioners, but no meetings were ever arranged.”

Welcome to the world of most citizens of Portland. Getting an appointment with Council members often takes several persistent phone calls. You can’t just sit back and wait for meetings with City Commissioners to be arranged. This is Portland, and while anyone can meet with most members of the Council, people not on the A list can expect to wait a month or more until a slot opens up on their calendar. You may be lucky and happen to ask when there’s a free half hour in the next week or two, but don’t count on it. And some Council members are more available than others. Remember when the Linnton Plan was going to Council, and State Representative Mitch Greenlick couldn’t get time on the Mayor’s calendar?

“At the time, the city was pursuing wind power for its own fuel consumption needs. He said he specifically asked to meet with Commissioner Dan Saltzman.”

It’s curious that Commissioner Randy Leonard, the lead proponent of biofuels on the Council, didn’t intervene in this case. Perhaps his talks with other companies are going well enough that Rappaport’s business wasn’t as coveted. Randy is quoted in Lee’s article saying, “Obviously, I wish we could have seen the future and known that it was going to be a viable industry, but I don’t think it was really economically viable for farmers, mainly, a few years ago.” An interesting statement, given the Portland City Council voted last month to subsidize Eastern Oregon farmers to make growing canola for biofuels economically viable. A recent Oregon State University study showing some crops need a 750% subsidy to make them feasible for farmers to grow for fuel.

Also of note, late in Lee’s article: the biodiesel plant in Vancouver is dependent on passage of a bond measure there on August 21, to allow the Port of Vancouver to purchase more land and build rail to 434 acres there. It would be instructive to see the “Who’s paying what” tables for what it costs to promote investment and job creation there.

Speaking of which, I haven’t forgotten about my South Waterfront series. Despite multiple e-mails, much pouring over tables of numbers, and multiple hopeful clicks on web links, I haven’t made enough progress on it to be able to publish more yet.