Letter: C2D – Confusing Direction?
Brian Howey reported in his Evansville Sunday Courier column of January 6, 2019, that Indiana Manufacturing Association President, Brian Burton said, “45 percent of the Hoosier workforce will be retiring in the next decade.”
Governor Holcomb has called this “the ‘silver
According to the same article, Holcomb and Burton are trying to come up with some ideas as to how to find workers to fill these job vacancies. One of their ideas is to begin a “relocation incentive program”. New workers coming to Indiana would not be required to pay a state income tax for five years.
Another idea is to use increased monies by putting them into the state’s job training grants amounting to up to $10 to $20 million dollars. Gov. Holcomb is also wanting to invest in QUALITY OF LIFE (https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/quality-of-life Note: Indiana was 48th last year.)
At the same time, Tom Utter, director of Lincolnland Economic Development (LEDC) is wanting to bring Riverview Energy’s Coal-to-Diesel Refinery to Dale. His only argument for bringing the highly polluting refinery to the area is we need jobs.
I am confused why Mr. Utter and his backers want to build the coal-to-diesel refinery in order to increase jobs in this area since, with the increase in available jobs due to the “silver tsunami”, we will need to use tax monies to entice out-of-state workers to fill these jobs. And then, this 512-acre refinery will, according to IDEM’s Air Quality Permit Draft, annually spew over 2.2. million tons of carbon dioxide, 32 tons of hazardous air particles, 255 tons of carbon monoxide, 3 tons of hydrogen sulfide and 224 tons of sulfur dioxide, that will allow all of us to smell the odor of rotten eggs. So much for QUALITY OF LIFE!
Are you as confused as I am about why the coal-to-diesel refinery is being pushed down the majority of citizens’ throats?
Could it be that it doesn’t make sense at all, except that a few people will be making lots of money by “selling” it here?
Check the facts:
- Howey, Brian, “State’s Silver Tsunami and, Well, Just Doing It,” Evansville Courier, Jan. 6. 2019.
- IDEM Air Quality Draft Permit #147-39554-00065
Charlene Hess, Santa Claust
Charlene,
That’s exactly what is happening. The RiverPew “people” are in the mold of cigarette makers. Just a disgusting breed of people who love Mr. Orange.
A high majority of people don’t want this trashy factory here. Coal is going away. It’s stupid to turn coal into diesel. dumb, dumb, dumb.
Now I expect Daryl Hensley to comment on how good this factory is and that the pollution this plant will make will actually help our air quality and make our tomatoes grow bigger than ever before!
Of course, Jeff I must chime in when the facts are distorted or misrepresented.
Mr. Howey sites Brian Burton for the source of the 45% of the workforce will retire. Mr. Burton doesn’t site a source for the number. I can only assume that Mr. Burton is using the Indiana Business Review from Indiana University Business Research Center, Kelly School of Business. “Indiana’s Population Projections, 2010 to 2050” In the IU report, the percentage of retires will grow 45% not the number of people retiring from the state’s entire workforce. “The movement of boomers into retirement age will cause a temporary decline in the state’s older working-age population, which COULD have implications for the size of Indiana’s labor force and the state’s economic development prospects. However, any negative economic effects that may stem from a smaller labor force could be mitigated by the expected INCREASE in labor force participation among older workers, productivity gains or higher than projected levels of net in-migration. Additionally, once the so-called baby bust generation edges into retirement age, the number of Hoosiers in the traditional labor force age groups will increase over today’s levels.” Not everyone who is of retirement age will be retiring. A good percentage will continue to work for financial and social reasons.
In fact, Indiana’s population is projected to grow “Between the years 2010 and 2050, Indiana’s population will increase 15 percent—from 6.48 million to 7.48 million residents—according to population projections released by the Indiana Business Research Center. More than one-third of this growth will take place in the next few years as the state’s population climbs to 6.85 million by 2020. Indiana will continue to grow over the following decades but at increasingly lower rates.” The report shows that between 2018 and 2030, 320,000 children will be entering the workforce.
The report also shows that between 2010 and 2050, Warrick and Dubois county are projected to show a significant increase in population. These increases are net increases. As older citizens pass away a net increase via natural birth and in-migration will occur.
http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2012/spring/article1.html
As far as quality of life rankings go, this is often a tactic to use subjective data to build a narrative you want to project to a citizenry. Indiana is among the top 10 for smoking, drinking and obesity. If your criteria discounts for those issues, then Indiana won’t score well. If your criteria are which states offer the freedoms and liberty to live your life as you see fit, then Indiana ranks among the top 5. I can site a few sources that show Indiana ranking quite well. For instance:
Indiana ranks 14th for one of the safest states
https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/safest-states-in-the-us-2018-wallethub#
Indiana ranks 3rd for best states for personal liberties
https://www.freedominthe50states.org/
Indiana ranks 11 for best states for business
https://www.forbes.com/best-states-for-business/list/#tab:overall
Of course, Jeff when it comes to the smell of rotten eggs, you are more likely to smell the manure the farmers spray on their crops a few times a year at various times. Google the dangers of manure to the ground water and humans. Not many complaints in Spencer county but it is a danger.
As far as the level of pollution emissions at Riverview Energy, California has 17 refineries in the state. All are in populated areas. Emissions from the California refineries are significantly higher than what Riverview is projecting. The most environmentally restrictive state in the union (California) finds that the emissions from these refineries are not at dangerous levels. Environmental science supports the IDEM numbers as a safe level of emissions. The opponents of Riverview Energy are moving the bar downward on emissions to suit their agenda.
https://www.energy.ca.gov/almanac/petroleum_data/refineries.html
Riverview Energy offers:
1. Energy independence from foreign sources of oil.
2. $2.5B increase in Southwest Indiana GDP
3. Jobs that pay above the median income for SW Indiana.
Daryl Hensley, Jasper IN
Daryl is comparing some manure spreading that happens for a few days in the spring to a constant factory that will smell awful 365 days a year!
Where are the rich families to block this idiotic idea? Koch’s? Winkler’s? Mulzer’s? Where are you!? They are silent.
I worked for Bill Koch and I guarantee he would have done something about this. And he had power too, so a good chance he would have blocked this. He would have known that the smell of rotten eggs would be bad for Holiday World and bad for business.