Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
A factory wants to reopen making 'green' aluminum. Now it just needs clean energy.
CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT
A factory wants to reopen making ‘green’ aluminum. Now it just needs clean energy.
The struggle to re-open the Alcoa Intalco aluminum smelter shows the difficulties of creating green manufacturing jobs at home
By Joshua Partlow and Steven Mufson
June 7, 2022 at 12:00 a.m. EDT
The Alcoa Intalco Works aluminum smelter in Ferndale, Wash. (Google Maps)
FERNDALE, Wash. — Ryan Chapman was on pace to make $148,000 as a roving maintenance worker when he learned two years ago that Alcoa was shutting down the aluminum plant. Soon he was collecting unemployment and pursuing a bachelor’s degree in his late 30s, with two young sons and a stay-at-home wife. It was, he said, “a drastic change in quality of life.”
But unlike so many places gutted by American industrial decline, Chapman and hundreds of other laid-off employees of the Alcoa Intalco Works aluminum smelter are tantalizingly close to recapturing that past.
A plan to revamp this factory as a key piece in the future of renewable energy in the United States has been embraced by seemingly everyone: the machinists union, a private equity firm, the new electric vehicle industry, environmental groups and the state’s political establishment — from Washington’s pro-environment governor, Jay Inslee (D), to pro-jobs local Republicans. And it would make the smelter the only one functioning west of the Mississippi. ... But a final obstacle — how to power the factory, and who will pay for that — may yet scuttle the deal.
The dominant Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency which manages the Pacific Northwest’s huge dams and sprawling transmission lines, is balking, saying it simply doesn’t have enough dependable, low-cost hydropower to promise the Intalco plant, which is set amid forests and pastureland on the shores of the Puget Sound. And its position is backed by local electrical utilities who cherish their dependable power supplies from Bonneville — and their low rates.
{snip}
Aaron Gregg contributed to this report.
By Josh Partlow
Joshua Partlow is a reporter on the The Washington Post’s national desk. He has served previously as the bureau chief in Mexico City, Kabul, Rio de Janeiro, and as a correspondent in Baghdad. Twitter https://twitter.com/partlowj
By Steven Mufson
Steven Mufson covers the business of climate change for The Washington Post. Since joining The Post in 1989, he has covered economic policy, China, diplomacy, energy and the White House. Earlier, he worked for The Wall Street Journal. In 2020, he shared the Pulitzer Prize for a climate change series "2C: Beyond the Limit." Twitter https://twitter.com/StevenMufson
A factory wants to reopen making ‘green’ aluminum. Now it just needs clean energy.
The struggle to re-open the Alcoa Intalco aluminum smelter shows the difficulties of creating green manufacturing jobs at home
By Joshua Partlow and Steven Mufson
June 7, 2022 at 12:00 a.m. EDT
The Alcoa Intalco Works aluminum smelter in Ferndale, Wash. (Google Maps)
FERNDALE, Wash. — Ryan Chapman was on pace to make $148,000 as a roving maintenance worker when he learned two years ago that Alcoa was shutting down the aluminum plant. Soon he was collecting unemployment and pursuing a bachelor’s degree in his late 30s, with two young sons and a stay-at-home wife. It was, he said, “a drastic change in quality of life.”
But unlike so many places gutted by American industrial decline, Chapman and hundreds of other laid-off employees of the Alcoa Intalco Works aluminum smelter are tantalizingly close to recapturing that past.
A plan to revamp this factory as a key piece in the future of renewable energy in the United States has been embraced by seemingly everyone: the machinists union, a private equity firm, the new electric vehicle industry, environmental groups and the state’s political establishment — from Washington’s pro-environment governor, Jay Inslee (D), to pro-jobs local Republicans. And it would make the smelter the only one functioning west of the Mississippi. ... But a final obstacle — how to power the factory, and who will pay for that — may yet scuttle the deal.
The dominant Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency which manages the Pacific Northwest’s huge dams and sprawling transmission lines, is balking, saying it simply doesn’t have enough dependable, low-cost hydropower to promise the Intalco plant, which is set amid forests and pastureland on the shores of the Puget Sound. And its position is backed by local electrical utilities who cherish their dependable power supplies from Bonneville — and their low rates.
{snip}
Aaron Gregg contributed to this report.
By Josh Partlow
Joshua Partlow is a reporter on the The Washington Post’s national desk. He has served previously as the bureau chief in Mexico City, Kabul, Rio de Janeiro, and as a correspondent in Baghdad. Twitter https://twitter.com/partlowj
By Steven Mufson
Steven Mufson covers the business of climate change for The Washington Post. Since joining The Post in 1989, he has covered economic policy, China, diplomacy, energy and the White House. Earlier, he worked for The Wall Street Journal. In 2020, he shared the Pulitzer Prize for a climate change series "2C: Beyond the Limit." Twitter https://twitter.com/StevenMufson