Aluminum Not Foiled
An interesting tidbit from yesterday's Bellingham, WA newspaper:
The 450 jobs at Alcoa Intalco Works are safe for now, thanks to a new power supply contract that is expected to keep the aluminum smelter west of Ferndale operating at its current reduced capacity for the next five years.
Apparently, the Bonneville Power Administration, which manages most of the hydroelectric dams in the northwest US, has agreed to subsidize Alcoa's power so that the Intalco smelter can stay up and running. What doesn't appear in the Bellingham paper, though, is the total value of the BPA subsidy. For that, we have to look to the newspaper in Pittsburgh:
The Bonneville Power Administration, the Portland, Ore.-based federal agency that markets electricity from hydroelectric dams, is subsidizing Alcoa's purchase at $12 per megawatt hour up to $38.4 million annually. [emphasis added].
So, 450 jobs saved for $38.4 million a year. By my calculations, that's over $85,000 in power subsidies per job saved. Oof.
