While SSA Marine wants Whatcom County residents to believe the proposed port will bring lots of tax dollars to our local economy, some facts need to be understood. Recently I read two articles in very conservative news magazines that said coal exports from the West Coast are destined for a market that is fastly moving away from using coal. A market that is beginning to have over production of coal by China being sold all over the Asian market at prices below what any American company could sell it at. So if American companies had to ship the coal at a very cheap price the pay for workers will be lower as well. If the market demand is not there, SSA Marine will just leave the port and will not care what is left behind for us to clean up. Yes, Whatcom County needs jobs, but let's look for jobs with a real long-term future, not a short-term fix. Let's create a tax incentive structure to lure other manufacturing to our area by building a regular port that can ship all other types of products as the original designs for the Cherry Point port had.

Christopher Wells

Bellingham