In Joseph Tainter’s textbook The Collapse of Complex Societies (New Studies in Archaeology) the author examines the societal and political demise of great societies like the Habsburg Monarchy, the Roman Empire and the Mayans. Failure of long established societies is often attributed to dwindling energy supplies associated with sustained maintenance of “military power out of proportion to the economic base, or in development projects with a marginal payoff…”    Collapse, therefore, is blamed on the inability of a society’s leaders to adapt to resource depletion be it a loss of adequate water, agricultural land or manpower.

Tainter explains that societal collapse is rarely this simple, of course, and that today most nations have the reserves to finance some period of diminishing returns. The consequence, however is they are likely to persist down the same path for far too long, or perhaps not long enough.  “Here indeed is a paradox: a disastrous condition that all decry may force us to tolerate a situation of declining marginal returns long enough to … develop the new energy source(s) that will be necessary to maintain economic well-being.”

“This research and development must be an item of the highest priority, even if, as predicted, this requires reallocation of resources from other economic sectors, ” writes Tainter. “Adequate funding… should be included in the budget of every industrialized nation.”

The SDAT (Sustainable Design Assessment Team) report suggested much the same when it encouraged citizens to rely less upon resource extraction and to work together to identify and develop more sustainable options. The SDAT also concluded, unequivocally, that county residents want to play a major part in shaping future development decisions and called for broad community meetings.

IMG_4570Sadly, the same groups that helped to bring the SDAT to Coos County want nothing to do with the team’s findings. Instead, the pro-gas BS Oregon, the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce and the Port of Coos Bay want development planning to be held behind closed doors, by invitation only. It’s no wonder they want to hide their plans when you consider that most of the nation no longer has any stomach for fossil-fuels and is eager to embrace sustainable alternatives.

No doubt, one of the strategies discussed in these secret meetings is how to get the public to embrace the Jordan Cove LNG project. We have referred to this in the past as “psy-ops”. If the public knew the extent to which these “leaders” are willing to go to bamboozle the public whatever remaining credibility they may have, after a long history of failures, would be lost.

The most common psy-ops tactics is to perpetuate the illusion of LNG jobs and prosperity. Jordan Cove LNG will bring badly needed jobs, we are promised. Not only do they promise jobs, according to the them LNG is our last and only hope before we suffer complete and total collapse. This is a completely dishonest marketing plan.

As a job maker, LNG is not very efficient. According to the draft EIS,  “…about 145 permanent staff would be employed to operate and maintain the LNG terminal and related facilities.”  Some of those employees may even be native to Coos County,   “…up to 70 percent of the operations and maintenance workforce could be local hires depending on the availability of personnel with the proper training and education.”

Assuming the full 70%, or 100.5 qualified individuals can be found who already reside in Coos County, at a cost of $7 billion we are talking about a $70 million capital expense per local job. Fred Meyer, Farr’s, Dutch Bros all do better than that and don’t take land via eminent domain! The 234 mile pipeline which does take private land using eminent domain and threatens more than 400 delicate rivers and streams will produce a total of five direct jobs.

We are promised hundreds to thousands of indirect jobs, depending upon who is speaking. Indirect jobs aren’t really relevant here because any direct job, it doesn’t have to be LNG, will contribute to the economy. The BlueGreen Alliance, a unique collaboration between unionized steel workers and environmental groups understands this and recognizes the value of a clean, green economy.

Repair America is our campaign to modernize the infrastructure systems we rely on every day both to address climate change and to create good jobs. Repairing these basic systems that we use for transportation, energy, communications, and clean water will both reduce the carbon pollution and greenhouse gases driving climate change and grow economic opportunity for millions of Americans by creating and maintaining quality, family-sustaining jobs. 

We’re at a make or break moment for our economy and environment. Infrastructure systems are the backbone of our economy, but we’ve neglected them for too long. Now, pipes under our cities rot away, leaking water or natural gas; roads that are congested cost us billions in lost gas and time and emit even more carbon pollution into our air; and our schools are falling apart, wasting energy and water. All of that both worsens climate change while at the same time making our communities more vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate—stronger storms, rising sea levels, floods, droughts and more.

Coos County elected officials, unfortunately, do not want to listen to constituents who aren’t also Jordan Cove sycophants. We have at least two and probably three climate science deniers on the Coos County Commission, one of whom actually claims to be a scientist. Worse, the pro-gas contingent are willing to accept or ignore the well documented health risks associated with a LNG terminal rather than begin the community discussions the SDAT revealed are so important to a sustainable future.

Passing the Coos County Right to a Sustainable Energy Future Ordinance this May will, amongst other things, force the fossil-fuel contingent in Coos County to either get out of the way or, gasp, help facilitate the important community discussions regarding sustainability the public so eagerly want to begin.