The annual West Seattle Chamber of Commerce Awards Breakfast on April 2 recognized the work and contributions of Nucor Steel (Business of the Year), Jim Jackson (Westside of the year), the Southwest Seattle Historical Society (Non-Profit of the Year) and Meeple's Games (Westside Emerging Business).

Saltchuk Chairman, Mark Tabbutt Keynote Speaker

The keynote speaker for the event was Mark Tabbutt, Chairman of Saltchuk, whose family of companies comprise a major economic presence in West Seattle, and around the world. In West Seattle the Saltchuk owned company Foss Maritime Services is well known.

After a review of Saltchuk's company operations Tabbutt explained that coming to Terminal 5 is the Shell Oil company leased Transocean Polar Pioneer a semi submersible oil drilling platform capable of drilling to 25,000 feet in a water depth up to 1640 feet. The rig coming from Norway, will be stored at the now vacant Terminal 5 which has been the source of some controversy.

Tabbutt explained that in a recent report called The Ties That Bind "113,000 jobs in Puget Sound are tied to the State of Alaska. It's enormous. $6.2 billion in labor and earnings are attributed to the connections that we have to Alaska. If you think about the history of Seattle and the names that are around, the Colman family was the "REI" for the gold rush. They made more money than the "gold rushers." He spoke about the fishing fleets, the cruise industry, the freight corridor, and the oil partnership.

He went on to elaborate about the impact of the oil industry on the Alaskan and Puget Sound economies, "It's been a partnership that has lasted 25 years but the oil coming out of Alaska is declining, and that's because there hasn't been big additional exploration but that's being replaced."

He thanked Terminal 5 for their leadership and acknowledged the controversy about the storage of the equipment at Terminal 5.

"We all live in West Seattle. You can't live here and not be an environmentalist."
He noted that everyone is taking measures, including Saltchuk to reduce their use of fossil fuels and reduce the carbon footprint, "but in the meantime, where are we going to get our oil? The crude that we've been pulling out the Alaskan Arctic if you have to pick between oil, is actually the most environmentally friendly oil you can get."

He explained that what is replacing Alaskan oil is coming by way of the practice of fracking. The injection of chemicals into the earth under heat and pressure to emulsify oil shale and other oil bearing formations. "The environmental damage being done by fracking relative to what we've done in our partnership in Alaska" and he pointed to a map displaying the total amount of land disturbed by Alaskan oil exploration vs that of fracking, noting that "That little dot is Prudhoe Bay and all the wells that have been drilled up there. For every single well drilled in Alaska it takes 5,000 fracking wells to produce the same amount of oil. Not to mention the carbon footprint being created by moving fracked oil to our refineries. Sometimes they truck it twice and then they rail it."

He pointed out that all the exploration in Alaska has been overseen by the federal government whereas fracking is overseen by the individual states.

Sources close to Foss said that the Polar Pioneer will arrive likely next month and stay only a few weeks before being transported to Alaska for the drilling season. It will return in the fall for winter storage here before returning to Alaska in 2016. The platform will be moored at the north end of Terminal 5.