Last week SSA Marine announced it is temporarily suspending the Gateway Pacific Terminal’s environmental review process, pending the Army Corps’ decision on the Lummi Nation’s treaty rights. Whether the project review process restarts or not, one point is clear: GPT’s job promises have always been on shaky ground. Over the last five years, SSA Marine and joint PR efforts with the railroad and mining companies have cast GPT job promises in many variants. Estimates have varied from 430 jobs to 1,250 jobs – most recently claimed at 5,680 jobs in a PR piece backed by the corporation and other project proponents last year. Unfortunately, this flow of claims often leaves our community and important decision makers with misleading and […]
Unanswered Questions on GPT and Local Jobs
When a developer is working to sell a big project to the public, a standard exercise is followed: identify any new “direct jobs” that the project may actually create and then multiply that number by the job ripple effect (also called the “multiplier”) associated with the business model. The result is a “total job” projection that becomes the job promise sold to the community. Why then are GPT’s job promises significantly greater than those made by the proposed Millennium Bulk Terminals coal port in Longview, WA? Millennium would be a similarly sized operation. It says it would create 300 jobs at full build out. GPT, on the other hand, says it would create 1,250 jobs—more than four times as […]
Comment Policy for GPT Fact Check
Comment Policy Communitywise Bellingham incorporates comments at our discretion based on our assessment of a comment’s constructive contribution to a diverse discussion. The comment must be consistent with our policies, designed to promote thoughtful discussion over polarizing opinion. To keep the Blog readable, we may decline to publish repeating comments with perspectives that are already well represented. Policies: Comments must be civil and not resort to personal insults. Comments should cite verifiable sources whenever a point is data based and avoid spurious accusations or speculations. Commenters must disclose if they are employees, consultants or other directly interested parties including proponent organizations and opposition organizations.
A New Blog from Communitywise Bellingham
It has been nearly five years since the Gateway Pacific Terminal proposal came to light, and Whatcom County residents are still waiting for clear details on what jobs the proposed project would actually deliver in Whatcom County. Other coal terminal proposals are much more clear and suggest far fewer jobs. GPT Fact Check will shine a light on the project’s unchecked job claims. We will examine GPT developer SSA Marine’s and its advocacy organization the Alliance for Northwest Jobs & Exports’ PR and job promises, providing readers with the best data available for you to draw your own conclusions about the potential job benefits—or losses—for our community. Our goal is to support a reality-based conversation about the project. […]