TITAN: Email and article from Titan America

For the record, I am opposed to the Titan plant coming to NHC. This is an email blast that was sent out from Titan's management, and I am interested to hear your thoughts and feedback.

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Friends,

Attached is an article on the proposed Carolinas Cement plant that appeared this week in the Wall Street Journal. The article states that among the most
vocal opponents to our project is a “fast-growing class of high-tech
entrepreneurs and telecommuters who moved to Wilmington in recent
years.” With unemployment at 10.5%, do we want the future of our
local economy to rely solely on our ability to attract telecommuters
and high tech firms? How many jobs do telecommuters create?
None.

We agree that Wilmington needs more high tech firms. Titan America is a high tech firm that employs a diverse group of
highly skilled engineers and knowledge workers to operate our
state-of-the-art facilities. But Wilmington needs a mix of jobs to
truly thrive. Our community has a long tradition of welcoming
responsible industry to create good, well-paying jobs. We look
forward to becoming part of that tradition.

We welcome your thoughts on the article.


Clash of Old, New Economy
Cement Plant Is Resisted by Some Neighbors Who Would Rather Lure High-Tech Jobs

By MIKE ESTERL

Titan Cement's Bob Odom in March at the site of a proposed plant near
Wilmington, N.C. The company says hundreds of jobs would be
created.

WILMINGTON, N.C.—The old economy and the new economy are squaring off in this coastal city, which is having second
thoughts about revisiting its roots in heavy industry.

Titan Cement Co. of Greece wants to build one of the largest U.S. cement
plants on the outskirts of the city and is promising hundreds of
jobs. The factory would be on the site of a cement plant that closed
in 1982 and today is populated mainly by fire ants, copperhead
snakes and the occasional skateboarder.

The proposed $450 million plant by Titan America LLC, Titan's U.S. unit, is welcome
news to Ron Givens Sr., a 44-year-old unemployed Wilmington native.
Mr. Givens's father supported 12 children while working at the
former Ideal Cement plant, and Mr. Givens and two brothers have now
applied for jobs with Titan. "I will apply for janitor if that's
what is going to get me into that plant," he said.

But thousands of opponents have petitioned local and state politicians
to block the plan. They object to the emissions from the plant and
say it will scare off tourists, retirees, entrepreneurs and others
who might otherwise want to live here.

An initial state environmental review has dragged on for two years, and critics of
the plant have filed a lawsuit seeking to further broaden the
review. The governor, amid public pressure, has asked the State
Bureau of Investigation to probe the plant's permitting
process.

"That's their tactic: Delay, delay, and at some point Titan will leave," said Bob Odom, Titan's general manager in
Wilmington, of opposition efforts.

Among the most vocal opponents is a fast-growing class of high-tech entrepreneurs and
telecommuters who moved to Wilmington in recent years, drawn to the
temperate climate, sandy beaches and good fishing. They argue the
plant, by curbing the community's appeal, will cost more jobs and
tax revenue in the long run than it produces.

"I think we can be discriminating," said Lloyd Smith, a 43-year-old entrepreneur who
moved here from northern Virginia in 2001 and founded Cortech
Solutions Inc., a neuroscience company with nine employees and about
$5 million in annual sales.

The standoff in Wilmington reflects a broader tug-of-war across the country as communities try
to kick-start employment. It is unclear how much manufacturing will
power the long-term U.S. economic recovery—even in southern states
that have long embraced heavy industry but have begun to feel the
new economy's pull.

President Barack Obama trumpeted stimulus efforts during a tour of a Charlotte, N.C., manufacturing plant
Friday, but U.S. industrial output remains below prerecession levels
despite rising eight straight months. And while the economy has
added 45,000 manufacturing jobs this year, the sector employs
roughly six million fewer people than a decade ago and makes up less
than 10% of the U.S. work force.

In New Hanover County, where Wilmington and the proposed cement plant are located, the area's
unemployment rate rose to 10.5% in January, the most recent data
available. Jobs were singled out as the most important issue facing
the county in a February poll of 400 residents. Yet 43% in the poll
said the Titan plant would have a negative effect on the county; 36%
viewed it as positive.

Opposition to the plant has caught community leaders off guard. After the local economy was dealt a
heavy blow half a century ago when a railroad employer left for
Florida, Wilmington Industrial Development, a pro-business group,
recruited firms such as Corning Inc., DuPont Co. and General
Electric Co. to build plants in the area.

Wilmington became an industrial magnet, even as other revenue sources such as tourism
and film production began to take hold. Then a few years ago, after
many local employers shed workers or shut down plants, the group
lobbied local politicians to bring Titan to the area.

"Not everybody is going to be a software engineer. It takes a myriad of
jobs to make a community," said Scott Satterfield, who has lived in
Wilmington for four decades and has headed Wilmington Industrial
Development since 1995.

Titan applied for its initial state environmental permit in early 2008, when it also secured $4.2
million in tax incentives from the county in return for meeting
targets including hiring 160 people and paying $2 million in taxes.
But state legislators later argued the environmental review should
be more thorough and new county commissioners came out in opposition
as a bumper-sticker campaign by local protesters grew, stalling
plans.

Among critics of the plant is Ian Oeschger, an International Business Machines Corp. software developer and avid
surfer who moved to Wilmington in 2004 from the San Francisco area.
Wilmington "attracts people who can live anywhere they want," said
Mr. Oeschger, 40, who works from home. He estimates 60 or 70
telecommuters from IBM alone live within a 20-mile radius of
Wilmington. The influx has helped swell New Hanover County's
population since 2000 by roughly 20% to more than
190,000.

Mr. Oeschger and others in opposition say the plant's proposed limestone mining operations and 425-foot smokestack
would spill unsafe levels of mercury and other contaminants into the
air and water, including the Northeast Cape Fear River, which
borders the site and flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

Titan counters that economic spillover from the proposed plant could
generate more than 400 jobs overall—including the 160 direct
jobs—and that its capped annual emission of 263 pounds of mercury is
equivalent to a resident eating one and three-quarter teaspoons of
canned light tuna a month. State environmental regulators haven't
concluded their own review.

The company says plants have become more efficient and it would only use 150,000 tons of coal to
make 2.2 million tons of cement annually—unlike the earlier plant,
which burned 500,000 tons of coal to make 500,000 tons of
cement.

Cherri Fearington, a 36-year-old waitress at the Castle Hayne Cafe, near the proposed plant, supports Titan. "I like
the legitimate way to stimulate the economy: real jobs," she said.
"People spend money when they have stable paychecks."

Her husband worked as a chemical operator at local plants for two
decades before being laid off a few years ago. He has since found a
new job at a chemical plant, but as a security guard, and at half
his former wages. When he recently applied for a single job opening
at a local chemical plant, more than 350 other job seekers did too,
Ms. Fearington said.

At the County Line Bait and Tackle store a couple miles downriver from the proposed plant, owner James Smith
said he allowed Titan opponents to put up some signs outside about a
year ago. But he removed them after pro-Titan customers complained.
"I'm just a one-legged man on the fence trying to keep from falling
off," he said. "We need the jobs here as long as it doesn't mess up
the water."

Thank you for your support and we will continue to update you on our project.