Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.
Our Klamath Basin
Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.
|
Will
COB Energy Facility be granted a huge tax break? by Lyn Brock County Commissioners' Meeting Tuesday, January 18, 2005 at 9 a.m. 305 Main Street, Second Floor Klamath Falls County Commissioners' Office 883-5100 County Commissioners' Meeting tomorrow (which starts at 9 a.m.) will have "Discussion and Consideration of COB power plant proposed enterprise zone agreement. There is an article on the front page of today's Herald & News and the agenda on the obituary page for the meeting itself. I would like to encourage everyone to attend the meeting and speak out against this tax break for a huge profit-making business that will use Oregon resources and pollute our pristine area. If they receive this tax break, our taxes will probably have to be increased. Below is a list of points to consider which I put together from various sources and many of the sources are listed. Please e-mail or tell your family, friends, neighbors, that if they are concerned, to show up at tomorrow's meeting. Business owners might be concerned about this out-of-state company getting a huge tax break when those of us who live and work here will still be paying our fair share or more than our fair share. Thank you. Please refer to facts listed below my signature ... Sincerely, Lyn Brock (541) 545-1205 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't believe everything you hear (or read in H&N)! Get informed. by Lyn Brock COB has suggested they pay one million dollars a year in lieu of property taxes. Would that million go into the general fund for the County Commissioners to spend however they choose? An enterprise zone designation could grant COB a $71,000,000 (seventy-one million dollar) tax break over the next 15 years. (per Reg LeQuieu, Klamath County Tax Assessor) Total taxes assessed each year in Klamath County (for county and city) is $42,000,000 (forty-two million) according to the assessor's office. COB should pay about eight million a year if assessed their fair share. According to Roger Hamilton, COB will be the largest gas fired electric generating facility on the west coast and one of the largest in the US and, therefore, probably one of the largest in the world. The CoGen plant is a 485 megawatt facility. COB is proposed to be 1160 megawatts. The purpose of an enterprise zone should be to provide lots of new jobs. COB, when operating, will provide only 15 to 30 jobs. (Proposed Order, page 107, line 17 ... read this Oregon Department of Energy document online at http://www.energy.state.or.us/siting/announce.htm#COB ) COB will be required to pay $13,000,000 (thirteen million dollars) to mitigate for excess carbon dioxide. That money will go to Climate Trust which can do the mitigation in a foreign country like Brazil ... not to Langell Valley or Klamath County. (Proposed Order, page 121, line 14) When will the CoGen start turning a profit so the city residents don't have to have bond after bond levied on them to support its maintenance? Do city residents really want another power plant in their backyard to compete with the CoGen? COB's parent company, Peoples Energy, is primarily in the business of gas distribution and oil and gas production so they can probably sell power cheaper than can CoGen. (Read about this company at http://www.pecorp.com) We asked the road department how much it costs to resurface roads because all the increased traffic and heavy trucks hauling construction materials will probably take a heavy toll on our farm-to-market roads. We were told it will cost $90,000 (ninety thousand dollars) a mile. That means even eleven miles of road would cost approximately one million dollars. Their million dollars a year wouldn't do much to maintain our roads even IF the commissioners designated it for that purpose. The COB will dump its air pollution into the same air shed (same airspace) as the CoGen (per ODEQ). We were told by Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) that limits for air pollution are based on what is safe for a normal, healthy adult. Of course, he told us, it could be harmful for infants and small children, the elderly, and anyone with a compromised health condition such as asthma. The stacks will be 150 to 200 feet tall according to COB's Amendment 2 and will be visible as far away as Lava Beds and Highway 97. Klamath used to boast 300 days of sunshine a year. Have you ever visited or driven by Albany, Oregon? If the COB is sited, we've been told this is "power alley" and Klamath will probably become the site for more and more and more power facilities which will use our water and pollute our air. Get informed. Protect your own interests, your own investments, your health and your community. Don't let this salesman sell you on a project to profit this Chicago based corporation at your expense! |
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