LNG in Oregon – Proposals Grow, Spurring Widespread Opposition
By Dan Serres, Columbia Riverkeeper (503) 890-2441
Oregon has been targeted for three years by companies seeking to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) into Coos Bay, Warrenton, and Bradwood, Oregon. Now, the full scope of these proposals is becoming clearer, with new pipelines being proposed that would deliver vast quantities of foreign natural gas into the Western market.
- NorthernStar Natural Gas intends to build an LNG import terminal 38 miles up the Columbia River at Bradwood, Oregon, directly across the river from Puget Island. This controversial proposal involves a 35-mile pipeline from Bradwood through Cowlitz County to an interconnect with the Williams NW pipeline. Recently, Transcanada and Northwest Natural divulged plans to build a second pipeline, named the Palomar Gas Transmission project, almost 200 miles from Bradwood to Transcanada’s existing GTN pipeline system near Madras.
- Oregon LNG (formerly Calpine) proposes a similar project at the mouth of the Columbia River in Warrenton The sendout pipeline for this project snakes over more than 117 miles diagonally across Clatsop, Yamhill, and Washington counties towards Molalla, where it would potentially connect with Palomar and the Williams pipeline.
- Jordan Cove LNG is a project of Fort Chicago and Energy Projects Development, and would deliver gas via the 223-mile proposed Pacific Connector gas pipeline to Malin, OR. The pipeline itself would be partially owned by Williams, Fort Chicago, and PG&E – a major California utility.
These three projects have drawn intense local scrutiny from community opponents, particularly due to public safety, environmental and economic issues with LNG import terminals. However, the pipelines present a new, growing area of concern. The proposals implicate hundreds of miles of rural Oregon and Washington, and landowners concerned with potential safety issues, environmental damage and eminent domain are joining forces with anti-LNG activists to block both the terminals and the pipelines.
The proposed LNG terminals and pipelines represent a stark contrast with recent Oregon State legislation calling for 25 percent renewable electricity generation by 2025. Each terminal would daily send out more natural gas than the entire State of Oregon uses on an average day. Oregon LNG’s peak sendout capacity of 1.5 billion cubic feet per day exceeds the daily consumption of natural gas in Oregon and Washington combined. The enormous scale of the projects and the involvement of major suppliers to the California energy market have caused many to conclude that the primary driver for the projects is the Californian natural gas market.
The Convergence for Climate Action brings a new perspective to the issue, with organizers arguing that LNG is dirtier than North American natural gas (40 percent more carbon emissions because of the long, complicated supply chain). As the West Coast ponders how to tackle climate change issues, Convergence organizers and participants hope to draw attention to these major new fossil fuel infrastructure projects and encourage citizens and decision-makers to reject this move towards more fossil fuel use.
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