After a major liquified natural gas (LNG) project was suspended in northwestern Oregon, its opponents are celebrating a victory that was five years in the making. 

NorthernStar Natural Gas, of Houston, Texas, has halted development on the Bradwood Landing import terminal, on the mouth of the Columbia River near Astoria, Oregon. 

Olivia Schmidt, an organizer for the Anti-LNG Coalition, said in a press release,

This is a massive victory for the anti-LNG coalition and all of its members including farmers, fisherpeople, foresters, vintners, conservationists, forest defenders, gas customers, students, river advocates and all the residents of Oregon and Washington who oppose the development of LNG

It seemed like a textbook case of a project being bled to death in regulatory due process.  Soon after the initial proposal for the terminal in 2004, citizen opposition revved up in the Bradwood area.

(Photo:  Columbia Riverkeeper.)

 

The main concern was public safety in close proximity to such a “volatile energy infrastructure.”  Over the five years of contest, though, thousands more Oregonians joined in the fight as the reality of pipeline prospects, and possible eminent domain, came to their front doors. 

A geographically and politically diverse LNG-opposition movement burgeoned and set to work identifying safety and environmental hazards, gathering evidence of companies’ questionable conduct, testifying at public hearings, and formally litigating.  And it worked.

NorthernStar President Paul Soanes said in a company statement,

The extended delays in the processing of state and federal permits for Bradwood Landing and the difficult investment environment have forced us to suspend development…In particular, the challenging regulatory environment gives investors pause.

NorthernStar had spent nearly 6 years and $100 million trying to break ground on the Bradwood Landing project.  It secured permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in September 2008; but it got hung up in the Oregon permit process, and was facing litigation from more than six entities.

NorthernStar filed for bankruptcy on May 4. 

Economically Sensible?

Natural gas is supercooled and liquified so that it can be easily shipped over oceans in large quantities.  Once imported, it is re-gasified, and piped across land to consumers. 

It makes perfect logistical sense to build an importation facility at Bradwood Landing.  It has long been an industrial site, and offers a deepwater port.

(Bradwood Landing, on the Columbia River.  Photo:  Columbia Riverkeeper.)

 

Here’s the rub:  we don’t need to import gas right now.

Domestic gas prices have plummeted, due to a boost in supply of newly accessible reserves as well as the economic recession of recent years, making transoceanic importation less financially competitive for the time being. 

For all of the impact it would sustain from the development of LNG facilities, said Schmidt, Oregon would not even be the primary consumer of the energy.  The proposed route for the Palomar Pipeline, for instance, runs eastward across Mount Hood National Forest, connecting to Trans-Canada pipeline feeding into California. 

(Proposed route for the Palomar Pipeline.  Image:  OregonLive.com.)

 

While the Palomar company peddles a great energy benefit to Oregon, the state Department of Energy says that projected energy needs would not necessitate the project.  In fact, Schmidt noted that we would actually have to cancel contracts with existing providers in Canada and the Rockies just to be able to absorb the deliveries from Bradwood Landing.  Brett VandenHeuvel, the Executive Director of Columbia Riverkeeper, said,

LNG has no place in Oregon…This is a tremendous victory for family farmers, fisherman, and Columbia River salmon.  This is proof that Oregonians will fight to protect our resources and our livelihoods.

Of course, the market could change in the near future, and the project may resume. Executives of NorthernStar maintain that the Bradwood Landing project is only “suspended” and is not “terminated.”

For environmentalists this victory ought to be tentatively bittersweet, for it may be more to do with dollars than with regulatory moral fiber. 

Looking Ahead

Natural gas will continue to be explored and developed domestically, if not imported; our growing energy economy demands it, especially as power producers transition away from dirtier fuel sources like coal.  Incumbent with that fact are the vast environmental harms of gas development, such as water depletion in coal bed methane (CBM) fields, clear-cutting forests to install pipelines, and emissions.  Is that better than externalizing the impacts of natural gas recovery to other countries which may have much more lax standards?

(LNG tanker at an import terminal.  Photo:  FERC.)

 

“They’re both unacceptable,” said Schmidt, “Development of new fossil fuel infrastructure, at this point, is a travesty…It will damage whatever community [wherein] it takes place.”

Citizens groups opposing LNG surely have their work cut out for them.  According to Schmidt, the Anti-LNG Coalition is actively fighting the other import terminals proposed for Warrenton, Coos Bay, and Jordan Cove, as well as the pipelines of Palomar and Oregon LNG.

“Palomar is the lynchpin for LNG development in Oregon,” said Schmidt.

Under a now dubious contract, NorthernStar and Palomar (of NW Natural) had agreed that over 90% of the Palomar Pipeline’s capacity would be filled by Bradwood Landing.  Now, opponents expect that Palomar will look to the nearby Warrenton project as a backup. 

Without a definite supplier, though, opponents argue that Palomar should not be permitted to proceed speculatively.  Currently, the pipeline is still awaiting a draft Environmental Impact Statement from FERC, expected at this year’s end.  But Schmidt said,

“For the last three years we’ve been hearing that it might come out any minute.”

For the time being, LNG has lost ground in the northwest.

NorthernStar may be joining the blurred ranks of industrial crusaders gone extinct, the Anaconda Coppers, the Standard Oils, the Willamette Industries, once thought indispensable to the righteous battle of progress, now entombed with their moldy old shields and scabbards.

(Citizens voice their opposition to LNG, at City Hall in Portland.  Photo:  Johnny Kilroy)