Coalition Blasts LNG Developers Payouts as a “Cheap Insult”

Columbia River Clean River Coalition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 17, 2006

Kelso- Longview, WA - Texas energy speculator Northern Star, which has proposed construction of an LNG mega-port and pipeline in the Columbia Estuary at Bradwood, OR, gave $ 100,000 to the Wahkiakum Community Foundation it what it claimed was a no string attached gift for the betterment of the community. Community members and others working to stop the pipeline, however, blasted the payment and promise for future payments as an insult to the integrity and intelligence of the communities around the Estuary that would be put at risk by LNG project. 

“Now we know what Northern Star thinks it will cost them to buy off Wahkiakum County,” says Terry Kriesel Chair of Wahkiakum Friends of the River. “What’s unbelievable is that they think we would trade off our safety, our economy and our community for little more than a bag of peanuts each year.”

George Exum who lives on Puget Island agrees, “This is an incredible insult to our community and one that is so juvenile and unsophisticated it really makes me wonder who is advising Northern Star. We knew that they would try to buy us off just because of the risks this project poses to our economy and our families, but we just didn’t know it’d be for so little”

“Northern Star is on one hand refusing to go through the basic local land use permitting process and then at the same time trying to say they want to support the local community,” explains Brent Foster, Executive Director of Columbia Riverkeeper. “This type of payoff is something I’d expect to see in a third world country and I think it’s really going to backfire on Northern Star.”

“This attempt to basically bribe our community is as outrageous as it is cheap,” adds Longview resident Vonda Brock, a grandmother whose land Northern Star has threatened to condemn for the LNG pipeline.   “If they think that we would put our families and our land at risk for such a small amount of money they’re just crazy!”

Sandra Davis with Landowners and Citizens for a Safe Community also reacted strongly to the proposed payoff. “This is really a sad statement about how much Northern Star thinks our community is worth.  They stand to make billions of dollars by putting our community, our economy and our families at risk and yet they think they can buy our support for this high risk project for a $ 100,000 or even $ 500,000 a year?”

Columbia River Clean River Coalition
433 13th Street
Astoria, Oregon 97103
cleanColumbiaEnergy@gorge.net

Contacts
Brent Foster, Columbia Riverkeeper (541) 380-1334
George Exum (360) 431-8679
Terry Kriesel (360) 849-4334
Vonda Brock (360) 636-1766
Sandra Davis (360) 577-1043

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