Port Commissioner “haunted” by prospect of creating jobs

Earlier this month, much to extreme “green” activists’ horror, a Seattle city hearing examiner cleared the way for Shell to continue using the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 5 as a homeport for its Polar Pioneer and other support vessels. Environmental gadflies had originally sued the Port in March after Foss Maritime, a shipping company, leased Terminal 5 to Shell’s rig.

According to the Seattle Times, the two-year lease was expected to “create hundreds of jobs and keep revenue flowing in as the terminal is upgraded to accommodate bigger container ships.”

Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development—on behalf of Seattle Mayor Ed Murray—had decided earlier this year that it was more important to score points with potential environmental donors than to support maritime jobs. So, the city told Foss it needed a new land-use permit to utilize Terminal 5 for some of Shell Oil’s Arctic drilling fleet.

Foss and Shell appealed the ruling, which led to the city hearing examiner’s decision to overturn the “tortured and novel legal analysis” used to justify the original decision.

In a recent interview with Crosscut, Seattle Port Commissioner John Creighton refused to stand up for the importance of job creation by simply acknowledging the rationality of the city hearing examiner’s logic. Rather, he attempted to sound thoughtful by taking every position possible on the issue and—in the process—managed to only create more unnecessary drama.

Adding insult to injury, Creighton stated that the issue continues to “haunt” him. It’s unclear what exactly is haunting him. So, we took it upon ourselves to venture a guess. Taking into consideration that Creighton is a liberal, here’s five things that may be “haunting” Creighton:

1. Creighton is “haunted” by the thought of supporting a longtime respected local business, Foss Maritime. How can one be a progressive liberal, after all, if you support a business in a dispute with special interest groups?
2. Creighton is “haunted” by the prospect of the Port of Seattle receiving a nice financial return for the taxpayers on a dock that was sitting empty.
3. Creighton is “haunted” by the thought of providing maritime jobs that pay family wages, instead of leaving the dock empty.
4. Creighton is “haunted” by the fact that he would actually do his duty as an elected Port official without regard for liberal politics.
5. Creighton is “haunted” by the prospect of extreme greenies targeting him for defeat the next time he stands for re-election.