Alcoa To Cut 200 Jobs At Ferndale (WA) Plant

[flamingyouth]

Gee, maybe Der Gropernator can come north and "terminate" these pesky energy costs!

http://komotv.com/stories/27776.htm

FERNDALE - Alcoa announced Wednesday it is laying off 200 of the 600 workers at its Intalco aluminum smelter here and cutting production in half because of high electricity costs.

"Energy is a key component of aluminum production, and today's (Bonneville Power Administration) energy rates are among the highest in the world for our industry," said Bernt Reitan, president of Alcoa Primary Products. "With a long-term, lower-cost power supply, we could operate Intalco at full capacity but, unfortunately, that is not an option."

The Pittsburgh-based company initially planned to close the plant near Bellingham on Sept. 30, but delayed the decision until Wednesday to give elected officials and others in the region time to work to mitigate a rate increase from the BPA. Earlier this year, it cut 125 jobs at the plant. The BPA's rate hike of 2.2 percent took effect two weeks ago.

[BrotherBuzz]

1. Isn't this the same company...

that laid off workers during the 2001 energy scam on the west coast because the company found that they could sell their allotment of electricity to California at a greater profit then running the plant. The stockholders made money while the workers sat home and tightened their belts.

[DrWeird]

2. Yes.

GP (same county) laid off 800 workers because of the electricity (crisis). Including yours truly.

Ferndale. What a dump. There state rep. called for cancelling funding to a nearby state university because an art student had a picture of a naked woman in her class project. Guess you get what you vote for.

[Atman]

4. Alcoa CEO was Paul O'Neill

Bush's Treasury Secy, until he brought his railroad butty, John Snow, aboard. Not that it matters. Just pointing out that if it stinks, there is a connection to Bush.

Idea: Six Degress of Kevin Bacon is dead. Time to play Six Degrees of George Bush (not to be confused with his IQ).

[revcarol]

3. The whole stock market went up because Alcoa's profits so nice

and high.

[flamingyouth]

5. Yep - you're right

So I guess we can expect a big boost in the market tomorrow (at the expense of these 200 people's jobs). Yay Bush, rah rah rah.

[bahrbearian]

6. On the Postive side, They've laid of less people then they have in,

Spokane.