February 25th Larry Knudsen, Assistant Attorney General with the Natural Resources Section of Oregon’s Department of Justice wrote a letter to Northern Star’s (Bradwood Landing) attorney and to Columbia Riverkeeper’s (CRK) director/attorney. In the letter Knudsen gave an update on the progress of two of the permits that Bradwood Landing had before Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
Northern Star’s Bradwood Landing project is applying for permits to site an LNG storage facility on private property in Clatsop County on what was once a saw mill site and is currently zoned for marine industrial, using private money from investors. Columbia Riverkeepers, a regional branch of a private organization which monitors the use of rivers throughout the country, opposes the project mainly because they say that spending money on fossil fuel projects takes away from “green” projects, the majority of which are heavily subsidized by the government, according to
In the bitter conflict between the two adversaries both continue to accuse the other of “duping” the public with “misinformation”. In the latest confrontation between the two, Columbia Riverkeepers appealed land use law decisions made by Clatsop County Board of County Commissioners to Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals as Respondent-Interveners. Their arguments, along with the Columbia River Inter-tribal Fish Commission’s and Dunzer’s, were addressed in LUBA’s final decision.
LUBA had three choices of decisions to render when considering the appeal. The state agency could uphold the Board’s decision. They could reverse (overturn) the Board’s decision or they could remand it back to the Board for further clarification (send it back to be fixed).
The Inter-tribal Fish Council lost on all eight points it was contesting, and the Board’s decisions were upheld. Dunzer lost on both points he was contesting and CRK lost on 21 issues, with the Board’s decision’s being upheld on each. Two decisions that CRK contested were remanded back to the BOCC. None of the land use decisions were reversed.
Knudsen clarified that because the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) remanded two decisions back to the Clatsop County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) the permit for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and the permit for the Air Contaminant Discharge Permit (ACDP) would more than likely be denied and recommended that Bradwood Landing formally agree to continue the suspension of permitting activities for the two permits until the remanded decisions were resolved.
The letter went on to update the recipients regarding additional matters that Bradwood Landing had not yet applied for, explaining what needed to be accomplished for the NPDES to be issued for “construction stormwater permits or registration under the 1200 C general permit for the proposed pipeline.”
Upon receiving the letter Columbia Riverkeepers sent out a press release informing media that DEQ had stopped reviewing all permits. Columbia Riverkeeper’s press release stated:
First, Clatsop County Citizens for Common Sense passed a referendum on September 16, 2008 that barred LNG pipelines in protected areas. Second, Columbia Riverkeeper and partners won a challenge at the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) that overturned the county’s approval of Bradwood Landing. Based on these two victories, DEQ has suspended review of all permits for the LNG terminal and pipeline.
Bradwood Landing quickly issued its rebuttal:
A letter sent yesterday by the Oregon Department of Justice on behalf of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality addresses procedural matters relating to processing certain permits for Bradwood Landing, but in no way constitutes a suspension of work … “The permitting process associated with an LNG terminal and pipeline is highly complex,” said Joe Desmond, senior vice president for external affairs for NorthernStar Natural Gas. “It consists of hundreds of local, state and federal permits, many of which are connected to other permits. In addition, there are overlapping and interdependent schedules for review and processing.” The DOJ letter makes clear that the State has not stopped processing all of our permits.
The Columbia Riverkeeper’s point of view is that Northern Star’s Bradwood Landing project has met a critical point in its permitting process. “DEQ’s action of suspending the permits is another major blow to Bradwood Landing,” stated Brett VandenHeuvel, Executive Director of Columbia Riverkeeper. “Bradwood is trying to push through an incredibly unpopular project, but sixty-seven percent of Clatsop voters rejected the pipeline and LUBA overturned the rest. Considering the broad state-wide opposition and Bradwood’s legal problesm, I don’t see this as a viable project.”
Bradwood Landing counters, in its press releases, that the recent development with DEQ is par for the course when dealing with permitting agencies.
The critical point for the public to understand is that these permits are NOT on the project’s critical path, which means there is flexibility within the overall schedule to work through these types of delays until such time that DEQ can issue its final decision. Starting and stopping a clock is standard practice for any agency reviewing an application. We will be meeting with DEQ in the near future to discuss the appropriate next steps.
Columbia Riverkeepers also restated in its press release that they, and assorted interveners, had prevailed in the LUBA appeal. The following parties prevailed in the LUBA appeal: Columbia Riverkeeper, Columbia River Business Alliance, Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club, Columbia River Clean Energy Coalition, Jack Marincovich, and Peter Huhtala (represented by Jan Wilson of the Western Environmental Law Center) and the Columbia River Inter-tribal Fish Commission (represented by Julie Cater).
As previously stated, Columbia Riverkeepers and its co-interveners asked that the land use decisions made by the Clatsop County Board of County Commissioners be reversed (overturned). In point of fact, Columbia Riverkeepers requests, as well as all those by the rest of the co-interveners, were denied. None of their over 30 arguments convinced LUBA to reverse any of the Board’s decisions. The Clatsop County Board of County Commissioners land use decisions were upheld, with only two issues being remanded back to the Board for further clarification.
Columbia Riverkeepers then accused BWL of “continuously” deceiving the public and agencies in its application for the Bradwood Pipeline.
New evidence shows that NorthernStar Natural Gas Company has a binding commitment to deliver all of the gas imported to its proposed Bradwood Landing LNG terminal to the Palomar Pipeline in Oregon. Therefore, the pipeline that Bradwood Landing has proposed through Cowlitz County (known as the “Bradwood pipeline” and shown on map in green) is unnecessary because all of the gas is committed to travel though the Palomar Pipeline. Bradwood has performed a bait-and-switch, wasting tremendous resources at FERC, federal agencies, the State of Washington, and Cowlitz County, as well affected landowners.
Bradwood countered in its press release that CRK “fundamentally” misunderstands the Bradwood Landing project and the workings of interstate gas pipelines.
The paper’s conclusion is fundamentally flawed – even the title itself was wrong. Since BWL does not own the gas, it cannot commit to where the gas goes. Our customers will make that decision. That is how we’ve previously explained the Precedent Agreement.
As determined by FERC and Clatsop County, Bradwood Landing has “independent utility” and will be constructed regardless of whether or not the Palomar pipeline is constructed. The objective of the Bradwood Landing pipeline is to deliver 1.3 Bcfd of natural gas into the Northwest gas market; the proposed route meets this objective, regardless of whether Palomar is built.
Columbia Riverkeepers went on to state that there is “new” evidence that Bradwood’s intent was to pump all of its gas through Palomar. In doing so, CRK alleged, Bradwood raised serious doubts as to whether the application for the Bradwood pipeline was in bad faith if Bradwood already had an agreement to ship the gas via the Palomar Pipeline. Bradwood’s own Securities and Exchange Commission filings show that Bradwood intended to use Palomar as early as 2006. Bradwood stated: “we have recently submitted a request for service to TransCanada and NW Natural for their open season under which they would construct, own and operate a pipeline that would connect the Bradwood terminal to Williams’ Northwest pipeline at Molalla and TransCanada’s GTN Pipeline near Mollala.
Bradwood Landing responded by stating that the “new” evidence CRK was referring to has been a part of its permitting process for over two years, and went on to show the timeline for its applications.
Northern Star initiated the pre-filing process for the Bradwood Landing LNG terminal and associated pipeline on February 23, 2005, Palomar Pipeline initiated the pre-filing process on August 20, 2007. The Bradwood Landing project was proposed to FERC nearly 2 ½ years prior to the Palomar project. In addition, Bradwood began working with the State of Oregon through its Energy Facility Siting Council in 2004 and received a project order for the Bradwood terminal and pipeline in 2005, again two years before Palomar was proposed to FERC.
The Bradwood Landing project consists of the Bradwood Landing Terminal and Bradwood Landing Pipeline, the Bradwood Landing project has “independent utility.” It would have made no sense, argues BWL, to suggest building a holding facility without a pipeline to get the gas to the market at the time that the project first began working with the State of Oregon in 2004. It makes no sense, now, BWL argues, to suggest that BWL would continue to spend millions of dollars in the permitting process for a pipeline that was not going to be used.
Columbia Riverkeepers continues to assert, as can be seen in its last two press releases, that the gas that is coming from the Bradwood Landing holding tanks is intended for California, with Oregon merely being a “conduit”.
Columbia Riverkeeper and local citizens have argued since 2006 that the Bradwood pipeline does not make sense because there is no way for the gas to get to California.
The Palomar Pipeline leads directly to the California-bound GTN pipeline so nearly all of the Bradwood Landing gas now has a direct conduit to California.
Considering that Bradwood has an agreement to use Palomar to take the gas to California, this report is highly deceptive.
However, it is clear that Bradwood needs Palomar to serve California markets.
In fact, Columbia Riverkeepers is protesting all of Palomar’s permitting process in Oregon at local, state and federal levels, in the hope of blocking its ability to come into Oregon from the Rockies. While protesting the pipeline, Columbia Riverkeepers has referred to the Oregon Department of Energy’s report to Governor Kulongoski which opined that LNG was not needed. Oregon Department of Energy went on to predicate its determination on the assumption that natural gas from the Midwest would be able to adequately supply Oregon along with what is provided from Canada.
Although CRK continues to use the DOE report as a reason why LNG is not needed, CRK has refused to clarify the discrepancy -that it continues to fight the very thing that makes the DOE report on imported LNG a valid argument. The following week a memo from Oregon’s Public Utilities Commission to Governor Kulongoski stated that Oregon is served primarily by Canadian natural gas that is shipped via a pipeline through Washington. “Oregon also receives natural gas from the Rocky Mountain states via the Northwest Pipeline that accesses the Opal Hub in Wyoming.” The memo went on to report that about 70% of Northwest natural gas comes from Canada. The Northwest pipeline from Wyoming is currently operating at or near capacity.
The press releases are contained in the NorthCoastOregon article Lng press releases accuse deception.
A related article regarding the Oregon Department of Energy report and the Oregon Public Utility memo to Governor Kulongoski can be read at NorthCoastOregon’s PUC memo says LNG storage could benefit the state.
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