Astoria city council barely finished their letter of concern and the ink hardly dried on Warrenton’s motion to FERC when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s staff issued its final Environmental Impact Statement. Both cities stated they were not satisfied with Bradwood Landings take it or leave it stance with what had been proposed for the communities’ Emergency Response teams along the route of LNG tankers traveling to the Bradwood Landing destination.
Bradwood Landing spokesperson, Charles Deister disagrees with the cities’ analysis of Bradwood’s attitude, however, because of the Board of County Commissioners’ conditions on the permit process, Bradwood Landing and Northern Star know that the communities’ concerns must be addressed before construction on the project can begin.
Two of the conditions that Clatsop County Commissioners placed on the project were that the permit process at the state and federal levels must be met and the Emergency Responder teams along the route that the tankers will take up the river must be satisfied that they have the necessary equipment to meet any emergency caused by having the project located in the county.
In addition to the conditions the Board of Clatsop County Commissioners (BOCCC), Bradwood Landing and Northern Star cooperated in an unique undertaking, the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding stating that if FERC stated certain conditions weren’t required Bradwood LLC and Northern Star would, nevertheless, still comply as agreed between the BOCCC and Bradwood. ““To our knowledge, we are the only LNG terminal project in the U.S. that has ever proposed or agreed to such a contract. Just as we have worked with Clatsop County, we are working with the State to address its concerns,” stated Bradwood spokesperson, Joe Desmond.
Timeline of Recent LNG events
March 20, 2008, the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 to approve with conditions Bradwood Landing LLC’s consolidated land-use application for a liquefied natural gas terminal and related facilities on the Columbia River east of Astoria. Commissioner Sam Patrick cast the dissenting votes.
April 8th Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals confirmed that Columbia River Keepers, represented by Brent VandenHeuval and Janet Wilson, filed a Notice of Intent to appeal the land use decision of Clatsop County Board of County Commissioners.
April 11th a petition for referendum on Clatsop County Ordinance 08-05 was filed with the Clatsop County Clerk’s Office by Don West, Marc Auerbach and Debbie Twombly. The petitioners want to refer to the voters an issue pertaining to amending the Land and Water Development and Use Ordinance in regards to whether or not “cable, sewer line, waterline or other pipeline” can be allowed as a conditional use within what is known as the Open Space, Parks and Recreations (OPR) Zone.
The argument for allowing conditional use states that voters may be surprised to know that cable, water, gas, sewer and other pipelines are already allowed on OPR lands connected to a permitted use. The caption as drafted did not disclose that fact. The argument against states that a “yes” vote would change county zoning law allowing cables and pipelines as conditional uses in areas designated “Open Space, Parks and Recreation” zones while a “no” vote would maintain existing county zoning law prohibiting cables and pipelines as conditional uses in areas designated “Open Space, Parks and Recreation” zones.
April 14, 2008, the Board of Clatsop County Commissioners, by a vote of 3 to 1, affirmed and modified the Planning Commission’s decision to grant Bradwood Landing a variance from the road standards for Clifton Road. Commissioner Patrick cast the dissenting vote.
April 29th Astoria residents Emil Nyberg, Don Atwood and Bradwood Landing community liaison Pete Hackett for Bradwood developer NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc. challenged the referendum ballot title, question and summary language as written by District Attorney Josh Marquis that would explain the referendum to voters. Ruling on that set for June.
May 9th Judge Matyas dismisses a motion from NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc. to stop the ballot referendum, which stems from the county’s approval of the Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas project land-use application.
May 9th Governor Kulongoski issues a press release regarding the Oregon Department of Energy’s (ODOE) assessment of the LNG need in Oregon. Stating that the proposed pipelines in the Rocky Mountains are more likely to provide less expensive natural gas and produce significantly reduced carbon dioxide emissions than the three LNG facilities proposed in Oregon. Bradwood rebuts, saying that the ODOE has used false assertions supplied by LNG opponents instead data obtained in an independent review. “The State has a responsibility to ensure Oregon’s energy needs are met in the most environmentally and economically sound way,” said NorthernStar Natural Gas Senior Vice President for External Relations Joe Desmond in calling for the state to “revision” their report so that they can better “serve the public interest.”
June 5th Judge Matyas rewrites the caption to read: “Conditionally allows pipelines in ‘Open Space, Parks and Recreation’ Zone.” Matyas rewrites the ballot title question to read, “Should county zoning ordinance be changed to conditionally allow cable and pipelines in open space parks and recreational areas?” and rewords the summary to read: “Clatsop County recently amended its zoning law to conditionally allow the placement of cables and pipelines in areas designated ‘Open Space, Parks and Recreation’ for purposes such as natural gas transport from a liquid natural gas facility, water and sewer as well as other possible applications.”
Charles Deister cautions those reading the ODOE report as reference for new sustainable energy, “The ODOE report states that Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) will be technologically and economically feasible in the next 20 years. There is insufficient data to support this conclusion. In May, Greenpeace issued a peer-reviewed report that calls into question both ODOE’s conclusions regarding CCS technical feasibility and costeffectiveness. The Greenpeace report, False Hope: Why carbon capture and storage won’t save the climate, was based on peer-reviewed independent scientific research and shows that the earliest possibility for deployment of CCS at utility scale is not expected before 2030 and the technology uses between 10 and 40 percent of the energy produced by a power station; therefore wide scale adoption of CCS is expected to erase the efficiency gains of the last 50 years, and increase resource consumption by one third.”
The Columbia River Keepers stated that Texas based energy speculator Northern Star filed its formal application on June 7th to build a Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) mega-import terminal in the Columbia River Estuary. If built, this would be the first such facility on the west coast. The impacts of this project on salmon and the communities that live around the Columbia Estuary would are difficult to understate.
Marc Auerbach, after outlining a system of reforms in regards to the pipeline proposed, writes: The reforms we call for are wide-ranging and extensive, but commensurate with the scope of our grievances. We think it is shameful that Americans are not afforded world class protections from eminent domain abuse. Some ideas, such as defining a corridor, are simple, common sense reforms. Others, such as an auction system are more far reaching. They are designed not to simply improve the outcome for affected landowners but for the country as a whole. Pipelines will never be a pleasant experience, but with enactment of these reforms, they can be more fair, just and humane.
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