Bio-refinery supporters change tactics
Saturday, March 17, 2007 11:46 PM PDT
Tami Hart Argus Observer
ONTARIO
Treasure Valley Renewable Resources hopes to learn from its failed attempt to situate a bio-refinery in Payette County according to company project manager John Hamilton.
Advocates of the $77 million “bio-refinery” project assert it will create more than 60 jobs locally. A number of key local leaders, the Oregon Department of Economic Development and Gov. Ted Kulongoski worked to get TVRR to situate the plant in Malheur County after local opposition and zoning issues scuttled efforts to build it in Payette County.
The state has played a key role — offering a seizable package of tax incentives to TVRR — in pursuit of the plant.
TVRR faced an organized and motivated coalition of residents who opposed what was billed as an ethanol plant venture in Payette County last spring.
Now the company plan to make an effort to change its method of doing business, Hamilton said, and be more “information friendly.”
A critical, initial step in the new “information friendly” approach for TVRR will be the first of several town hall meetings at Four Rivers Cultural Center Thursday at 7 p.m.
Hamilton said TVRR hopes to dispel any misconceptions about its venture with the gatherings.
“We’ve been accused of being secretive and holding back information and I wanted to get out early that we have the information,” Hamilton said. “Even though I filed all the same information in Payette County, nobody looked at it. There was just one person who took two copies of it.”
Hamilton said it was a case of the public having a ‘don’t confuse me with facts, I’ve made up my mind’ attitude when it came to TVRR’s blueprint to situate its plant in Fruitland.
Hamilton conceded the same type of sentiment exhibited in Payette County, to some extent, still exists.
The town hall meeting, Hamilton said, will give the public the opportunity to talk directly to the company.
New approach too late for Payette County
Kevin Tucker, Fruitland, a vocal opponent of the original ethanol plant facility proposal, said a decision by TVRR to hold similar town hall meetings in Payette County would have made a big difference.
Tucker’s home is adjacent to the area where TVRR originally planned to build the facility in Payette County.
Tucker said there was a sense of secrecy attached to TVRR’s actions Payette County. That perception hurt the plant’s chances in the long run, Tucker said.
“The whole concept of everything was they were trying to be sneaky and deceptive and that was the opinion of everybody,” Tucker said. “If they had come out honestly and told everyone up front and publicized it properly, it probably wouldn’t have been so bad.”
Tucker said he felt that TVRR was “just trying to pull one over on us.”
Hamilton said he has made an effort to talk to homeowners near the site location in Malheur County, a task he did not do in Payette County.
Hamilton said he was not sure if the effort will help or not and one resident, he said, has already expressed opposition to the concept.
Letters about the town hall meeting have also been mailed out to the homeowners and Hamilton said he will meet with people one on one if they are not comfortable with the more public forum.
The TVRR project manager said he is also responding to what he dubs as “rumors” more seriously than in the past.
“We’ve heard rumors that in the subdivision out there, they’re concerned that we’re going to have too much truck traffic, so I’m working with the county and the state to talk about that,” Hamilton said.
Overcoming the past
One of the biggest problems the company faced in Payette County from critics was the perception it was deceiving the public, as new information surfaced throughout the planning and zoning hearings.
“The biggest problem we had was we really didn’t have the information available. We were in an on-going process,” Hamilton said. “As we gained information and disclosed it, then we were told we were lying.”
Hamilton said now the preliminary engineering phase of the process is completed and the details about the bio-refinery are firm.
The name of the facility has also changed since its days in Payette County. Initially, TVRR referred to it as an ethanol plant.
Now, the company is calling it a “bio-refinery.”
Hamilton said the name change came after the preliminary design for the plant were completed and TVRR realized the major products produced by the plant outweighed its ethanol production and a majority of its revenues would not come from ethanol.
“The engineer’s comment was this was a bio-refinery, not a traditional ethanol plant,’” Hamilton said. “As we looked at the project, we decided to change the name and call it what it is — a bio-refinery.”
One factor that seems to be working in TVRR’s favor in Malheur County, Hamilton said, is the support it has received throughout the community and from the state.
Hamilton said he feels there is more public verbal support locally than the company received in Payette County.
“State-wide, we have support for it because of the jobs and the economic improvement,” Hamilton said.
According to Hamilton, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality will attend the town hall meeting and answer the public’s questions, something that it’s Idaho counterpart would not do.
“That hurt us,” Hamilton said.
Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s Community Solutions team will also be represented. The economic development committee will also be in attendance. Hamilton is unsure whether they will address the public but he wants them to be available in the event there are questions.
“If there are questions that are asked, I would prefer they answer them rather than me answer for them. I’d rather they put out the words rather than me put words in their mouth,” Hamilton said.
Despite the company’s efforts to refashion its image, Hamilton said he knows that they will continue to have opposition to the bio-refinery. He said, though, he hopes the opposition is not at the same level as TVRR experienced in Payette County.
“I hope we can answer their questions and they will hear us, rather than ‘don’t confuse me with facts, I’ve already made up my mind.’ We’re trying to get in front of the curve so that the facts will help people make up their mind,” Hamilton said.
Tucker, who owns his own business, said earning the public trust is a key challenge for any business and TVRR is no exception.
“People aren’t stupid. If I go to a customer and start spreading lies, they’re going to catch on and there goes the trust,” Tucker said. “If they can just be honest, straightforward and up front and earn the public’s trust, I think those will be the keys to their success.”
Although the location for TVRR’s newest venture is miles away from his Fruitland home, Tucker said he is still concerned about the plant being sited in Malheur County.
“I hope they don’t try to pull the wool over people’s eyes over there too. Let the facts be known before it’s too late,” Tucker said.
