Strait Could Have Sevenfold Increase in Tanker Traffic

Kinder Morgan Canada wants to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline that carries tar sands oil from Alberta to the Vancouver, BC region.  If this plan is approved, up to 34 tankers a month could carry oil through Haro Strait and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Engineer to Inspect Nippon Catwalk after Fire

A wooden catwalk at the Nippon Paper USA mill caught fire last night.  A structural engineer is supposed to inspect the catwalk today.  The fire did not affect mill operations and no injuries have been reported.

Unemployment Slightly Up in Clallam County

As of the end of November, Clallam County's unemployment rate is 8.5 percent.  At the end of the previous month the rate was 8.3 percent.  Clallam County's unemployment rate is about half a percentage point lower than the rate last year at this time.

The statewide unemployment rate is 6.5 percent.

Hurricane Ridge to be Closed during Holidays

Because of budget cuts, Hurricane Ridge will be closed during the weeks of Christmas and New Year's.  Also, ranger-led snowshoe tours of Hurricane Ridge have been canceled, and the visitor center at Hoh Rain Forest is temporarily closed.

Sounds like a perfect example of penny-wise and pound foolish.

Tourism and Marketing to be Discussed at Chamber of Commerce Luncheon

Tomorrow will be the final luncheon of the year for the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce.  Guests will be Barb Maynes, communications director of Olympic National Park; Russ Veenema, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce; and Ryan Malane, marketing vice president of Black Ball Ferry Line.

They will be reviewing tourism and marketing from 2013 and making projections for 2014.

Possible Free Bus Service for Downtown Victoria

The Victoria city government might establish free bus service that would loop around downtown Victoria.  It could be up and running by next summer.  (This article was in today's PDN but is not on their website.)

Free bus service around the downtown area:  would this be feasible for Port Angeles?

Nippon Manager to speak at Chamber of Commerce Luncheon

Harold Norlund, manager of the Nippon Paper Industries USA Inc. mill in Port Angeles, will be the guest at tomorrow's meeting of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce.  He will be discussing the newly completed biomass cogeneration plant.

Letter to PDN, December 4, 2013

The following letter appeared in the PDN today, titled "Obama's Munich."

The Obama Administration's disastrous foreign policy continues.  We paid the price for British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's 1938 "peace in our time" deal with Adolph Hitler.  Now President Obama is going down the same path.

In the Middle East in particular, irresolution is seen as an invitation to attack.  Osama bin Laden related how seeing the U.S. abandon Somalia after the 'Blackhawk Down' debacle in Mogadishu emboldened him to plan larger attacks.  First President Obama lets al Qaeda murder our ambassador to Libya without using our military assets in the Mediterranean to intervene.  Then, he rattles his saber, threatening military intervention in Syria, only to back down ignominiously when he sees that he lacks domestic support for attacking Syria.

Now he strikes a deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Under the Obama deal, Iran retains the capacity to enrich uranium, abandoning long-standing U.N. Security Council and U.S. insistence that such capacity be eliminated.  The important areas of centrifuge manufacturing, nuclear weaponization research, and ballistic missile research are not even covered by the Obama deal. Iran gains international legitimacy and access to billions of dollars previously blocked by sanctions in return for unenforceable promises by a regime that has proven it cannot be trusted.

When mortal enemies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia publicly agree that Obama's deal is fatally flawed, it should give us something to think about.  A Saudi nuclear bomb, which will be the inevitable consequence of an Iranian one, will not make the world a safer place.

The good news for the above letter-writer:  There's already a club for people just like him.  [See below]

Possible Merger of Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Council?

There's a remote possibility that the Clallam County Economic Development Council might merge with the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce.  The possibility might be discussed at tomorrow's meeting of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce, where the topic will be:

“Are we satisfied with the current economic development state of affairs on the Olympic Peninsula, or are there opportunities for better collaboration of efforts?”

There was a rumor several years ago that somebody suggested the Chamber of Commerce, Port Angeles Business Association and the Port Angeles Downtown Association all set up their offices inside the empty Parker Paint building.  There wouldn't be any collaboration between the organizations; they'd just be physically occupying the same premises, getting used to each other, and eventually they might stop thinking of each other as rivals or enemies.

The idea was soundly rejected by all parties.

Anyone know if that rumor is true?