Interesting stance. The Columbian seems to be trying to back-pedal on this news event, minimizing its importance and comforting those who join the newspaper in opposing the project. When it comes to approving this project, no body has more power than the Port comissioners. If they said No, it would be No. For this project, neither the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council nor the Governor has greater power. (Perhaps after the vote on I-502 perhaps our Governors should be called Your Totally Highness.)

This will be a lot like the whole CRC approval process. We may have other individuals or boards that approve it along the way, and we may hear people start to call its final approval inevitable. But we should not join those early revelers. At any step in the approval process, it could be squashed. The approval by the Port commissioners was important, as will be the approvals or disapprovals of every one of these required reviewers.