Catherine Mater’s appearance at an Oregon Transportation Commission meeting Thursday in Salem capped a swift turnabout for the Corvallis civil engineer, who was fired this week by Gov. John Kitzhaber after casting a tie-breaking vote last August dooming a $2 million grant that would’ve benefited Ambre Energy, the company proposing to annually export 8.8 million tons of coal through the state.
On Thursday, with the grant project she rejected coming back to the commission for approval, Mater addressed her former colleagues, accusing the port of being untruthful in its application seeking a subsidy to help Ambre, saying it failed to note significant unresolved state permitting hurdles.
Mater said pressure from State Senator Johnson and other coal supporters had forced her out, putting Kitzhaber, a coal export opponent, in the puzzling position of ousting one of his own recent appointees for opposing state spending to benefit coal exports.