Panel: Coal port would lift Whatcom economy

People at an invitation-only meeting hosted by pro-business groups on Monday, June 22, heard a message most of them agreed with.

If the growth of Whatcom County’s post-recession economy is going to catch up to the rest of the state, it would help if a proposed 54 million-metric-ton export terminal for coal and other bulk goods was built at Cherry Point. That was the message during a panel discussion at the meeting held in Fox Hall at Hampton Inn.

The county lags the rest of the state in wage growth, according to statistics provided at the meeting by Hart Hodges, Western Washington University economics professor and director of the Center for Economic and Business Research.