The station in early September said the unidentified company was considering Wallula; Port of Morrow, Wash.; and "a spot in Utah." The station also said the company would bring 300 jobs and that Port of Morrow had selected a site with more than 600 acres and an option to add 300 more over the next five years.

Susan Webb, public information officer for the Washington Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development said her office does not comment on pending economic development matters, although she did say Washington state does have economic incentive packages at its disposal for a variety of purposes.

Utah board documents indicate the plant would be the first new location for the company in more than 30 years. According to the company's Web site, it has no Utah manufacturing operations. Its nearest manufacturing operations are in Phoenix, a plant that produces Metamucil, and California, where it has plants in Sacramento, Oxnard and Anaheim.

A Utah facility would represent a $540 million capital investment, including $315 million in the project's first phase.

P&G has more than 138,000 employees in more than 80 countries and provides products and services to people in more than 180 countries. Founded 170 years ago, the company has nearly 300 brands and is the 13th-ranked market capitalization company in the world, at more than $200 billion.

The company's paper products division produces Bounty paper towels, Charmin toilet tissue and Puffs tissue.

The Utah incentive would be in the form of a tax rebate of half of new state revenue for the first five years the plant is operating, then lower percentages over the remaining 15 years of the incentive. The net incentive is 30 percent of new state revenues, or about $85 million. The company would be required to commit to keep the operations in Utah at least 20 years.

Box Elder County is developing a local incentive in the form of refunding incremental property taxes for up to 20 years.

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E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com