Corporate welfare and the myth of job creation
While the world waits for the November COP26 Climate Summit, Arkansas legislators look for ways to give subsidies to corporate polluters under the banner of new jobs. The target industries are uniquely defined, and they are not about roads, bridges, sewers, or other infrastructure to protect Arkansans from severe weather.
Please keep reading if you are concerned with power outages, extended heatwaves, clean water and food, and protecting your family. Two state bills, currently under review, would grant corporate subsidies for wood pellet mills using sawdust and steel manufacturing.
Like the infamous 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Creation Act, pellet mills and steel manufacturing would only benefit corporations and hurt everyone else.
When UK Drax got a sack of money from AEDC in exchange for 50 years of air pollution, instead of paying millions of dollars for 30,000 likely deaths from PM-2.5 fine particulate pollution, they must have said, Wow! Through the looking glass indeed!
Carbon suckers
Forests are like extended families of trees, plants, and wildlife, interconnected by a web of life in the soil. The roots of trees are not only to keep them standing, but to share nutrients, water, and information. Mother trees take care of the young and all have a role to play. Forests are busy sucking carbon dioxide out of the air to grow healthy and store carbon in the soil.
The “Logging and Wood Fiber Transportation Job Creation Incentive Act 594,” is the convoluted name legislators use to build wood pellet mills using sawdust from sawmills, subsidized by taxpayers. A better plan would be to pay forest owners to keep forests intact.
Last week, Biofuelwatch said, “Drax power station is harming forests, climate, and communities living near wood pellet mills supplying Drax. Drax’s unfounded claims about future carbon capture are a cynical distraction from these very real impacts.” In other words, Drax wants more subsidies, it is all for the money!
Drax Biomass has not responded to the PM-2.5 information missing from the Arkansas air permits stating the number of tons per year allowed. How else will the inspectors know if the mill is in compliance with the Clean Air Act?
Legislators believe building pellet mills adjacent to sawmills is a match made in heaven. However, this is a death sentence for marginalized minorities breathing the combined air pollution.
Steel mills
Act 895 would give subsidies for one steel mill. “That melts scrap steel in an electric arc or similar furnace to produce one or more specialty steel products, including billets, structural shapes, reinforcing bars, coiled reinforcing bars, wire rods, and merchant bars, in which the taxpayer has a total investment in excess of two hundred million dollars.” The only thing missing is the name of the mill! Why give subsidies to one particular mill?
The steel industry has massive carbon dioxide emissions. According to the World Steel Association, in 2020 steel production generated over 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide, about 10 percent of all man-made carbon emissions. No other industrial material has a greater climate impact.
Job creation is a myth
JOBS is a four-letter word used by politicians to promise a better world and win elections. Quality jobs are the result of small business owners investing in goods and services to meet new demands. Entrepreneurs seek opportunities for what is next and share their vision with associates and investors. People are hired to meet the demand.
In the context of the climate emergency, trade experts with supplies and personnel capable of providing quick response are badly needed. Like our fire stations staged at critical locations with rescue teams, similar services are needed to deal with droughts, floods, heatwaves, severe cold, and all other weather threats.
Suck it up and get it done!
Arkansas is not what it used to be. Arkansas offers unique opportunities for the climate emergency. Away from the coast, with forests, wetlands, water, and rivers. Unless we muck it up.
No subsidies, no deforestation, and no new mills made in Arkansas!
Dr. Luis Contreras