Oregon LNG Files Formal Application to Export LNG

June 12, 2013

On Monday, June 10th, Oregon LNG announced that it had filed a new application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to site and construct a massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility and associated pipeline. Read Riverkeeper’s press release regarding this announcement.

Oregon LNG’s new proposal represents a significant departure from its previous LNG import scheme. As part of its project, Oregon LNG intends to supercool and export North American natural gas, some of it sourced through the newly proposed Williams Washington Expansion Project – a proposal for 140 miles of new, 36-inch, high-pressure pipelines through Washington.

You can help! Scroll down to learn how you can take action to help stop LNG export proposals.

Thumbing Its Nose at County and State Laws

Columbia Riverkeeper Paddle Trip on the Hanford Reach on July 26, 2015. Riverkeeper hosts this paddle trip biannually as an opportunity to educate the public about Hanford’s cleanup. Photo by Sara Quinn

As reported in The Oregonian and the Daily Astorian, Oregon LNG is hoping that it can ignore local and state laws while seeking FERC’s approval. Oregon LNG spent two years attempting to sidestep the authority of Clatsop County’s Board of Commissioners after the Board took a preliminary vote to reject the pipeline project in 2011. Now, with a final vote looming this summer, Oregon LNG is arguing that a federal approval should override local and state authority. Despite spending years to seek the County’s approval, Oregon LNG CEO Peter Hansen now says, "It's quite clear that a local county does not have jurisdiction over an interstate pipeline.”

Regardless of Oregon LNG’s newfound distaste for county land use rules and the Coastal Zone Management Act, local activists and Columbia Riverkeeper plan to continue our fight to hold Oregon LNG responsible for meeting Oregon’s laws, including those that protect our water quality, forests, public safety and salmon. Riverkeeper will continue to work with landowners and community groups who are impacted by the Oregon LNG project. We plan to intervene in the FERC process, and we continue to urge the states of Oregon and Washington to stand up for our communities and to defend vigorously the rights of each state to review and, if appropriate, deny the Oregon LNG proposal.

See Riverkeeper’s comments on the Oregon LNG and Washington Expansion Project proposals.

TAKE ACTION

Tell the Governors of Washington and Oregon to protect farms, forestland, and salmon from the Oregon LNG terminal and pipelines. Urge them to defend the right of Oregon and Washington to review proposed LNG projects and their pipelines!