Economic Arguments for Cement Are Crumbling

Titan America’s full-page paid advertisement in the June 15 issue of the Star-News, written by a supposed “expert”, Andrew Brod, was so weak as to be laughable.  The ad is designed to convince us that breathing dust and swallowing mercury, hexavalent chromium and other deadly chemicals will be fun and profitable for all of us.  Brod sets up several straw-man arguments in an attempt to distract citizens from the countless reasons this plant is bad for the Cape Fear region. 

The ad weakly addressed only one economic argument but ignored the significant negative impact Titan’s pollution would have on real estate and tourism, our ability to attract non-polluting industries or health-care for the people the pollution sickens.  Surprisingly, Brod chose to argue (ineffectively) with several scientific studies of southern cities showing low-tech industries typically reduce long-term net economic activity and jobs due to increasing input costs, congestion of local infrastructure, and the perception that an area is favoring dirty heavy industries.  If we had no other advantages to offer businesses, the Cape Fear region would be desperate for the jobs Titan says might be coming.  But, our area has so much to offer that we would have a much easier time enticing clean businesses to the area without polluters like Titan. 

Moreover, the ad clarifies that Titan has two sets of numbers where job creation are concerned – one they give to the public and another they use internally.  In paragraph two, the ad asserts there will be an economic impact of between 1730 and 2133 jobs, but not a shred of evidence is presented to support this unbelievable assertion.  In paragraph nine, Brod clarifies that his “upper-bound estimate of 424 additional workers is small potatoes when compared to the county’s labor force of 100,000 people”.  They don’t even believe their own public estimate of job growth, not that a few jobs would compensate for all the other costs to the community.

Just for good measure, the ad ends with a stunning act of intellectual wizardry, claiming “the most reasonable conclusion is that significant economic benefits will accrue” without presenting any reasoned argument in favor of that conclusion.   Yes, that may be the most reasonable conclusion if one lacks completely the ability to reason.

As a small business owner who moved my company here in 2001, I can tell you the one strike against Wilmington in our survey of possible locations was water quality, due to the widely-publicized fish kills in North Carolina.  I am embarrassed to say that I was unaware before moving just how bad the air and water quality here really are.   A visit to ScoreCard.org, an independent pollution reporting site, makes it plain that we just cannot afford to continue to court heavy industry.  We are among the worst 10-20% of counties in the country for all six of the major pollution categories. 

Let’s change course, New Hanover!