Excerpts from the Los Angeles Times:
When state and county officials in southern Utah came up with an unusual plan to invest $53 million in public money to help build an export terminal in San Francisco Bay, they decided to tell as few people as possible what commodity they planned to export.LA Times reported that Jeffrey Holt, UDOT chairman, urged leaders to mislead Oakland’s decision makers on the true intended use of the terminal. ”The key concept is — This is a bulk terminal, many commodities can and will go through the terminal,” he wrote in April in his suggested talking points for county leaders in Utah. ”(Could coal be one of them, you ask? Sure, I guess so, but we have so many products here in the State of Utah that need rail.) Less press is best. Controlled message is critical.”
“The script,” according to Jeffrey Holt, the chairman of the Utah Transportation Commission and a central figure in arranging the $53-million loan, writing in an email last spring, “was to downplay coal.”
Now, more than six months after Holt sent his email, the state loan has yet to be finalized and the proposed terminal — which is being developed on city property in Oakland with the help of a longtime friend and investment partner of California Gov. Jerry Brown — faces sharp new questions. Instead of stealthily helping shepherd the project, Holt appears to have inadvertently stoked opposition to it after his email was released as part of a public records request.
Update: Holt has announced his resignation, effective immediately.