What a SHOCKING Surprise - Pulp Mill Was a Boondoggle After
All
In late September 2004, the Charleston Gazette
reported:
"REMEMBER back in the 1990s, when Parsons &
Whittemore planned a $1 billion paper pulp mill in Mason County, but
dropped the project amid controversy over pollution? Well, its
probably just as well, because the firm has gone bankrupt. The
town of Nackawic, New Brunswick, Canada, is in shock. Bizarrely, the
company said it was closing the communitys pulp mill temporarily for
maintenance and hired 40 contractors for that task then shut the
plant permanently and threw 406 employees out of work. Astonished
workers occupied the mill in protest. The following day, Parsons &
Whittemore, based in New Jersey, filed bankruptcy for all its
operations. A Canadian businessman told us the firms actions were
ruthless and devastating."
Good thing indeed! This was the same project that
West Virginia officials were willing to do anything to get,
including offering economic "incentives" of more than $1
million per job created, advising P&W on ways to keep the unions
out, and generally acting as P&W's bully boy in WV.
Thanks to all the OVEC members and volunteers who are
still with us from the days of fighting off what would have been the
continents largest, dioxin-spewing pulp mill.
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