Gas project must meet Oregon's standards

Congress stripped the states of LNG siting authority, but that

Sunday, November 25, 2007

F ederal energy regulators and Texas speculators are sprinting down the homestretch in a race to site a liquefied natural gas operation on the lower Columbia River, a massive project based on studies that Oregon officials say fail to meet state standards.

This race needs to slow down. And Gov. Ted Kulongoski needs to do what he can to make sure the concerns of Oregon watchdog agencies aren't run over.

If "do what he can" sounds weak, it's because the state has a greatly weakened say in the siting of terminals for liquefied natural gas, or LNG. In 2005, at the request of the LNG industry, Congress took away states' authority to site these massive installations and gave it instead to FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Oregon, which vigorously opposed that shift, is now home to a pair of late-stage LNG terminal siting applications. One is at Coos Bay, and the more advanced of the two is at Bradwood Landing, 38 miles from the mouth of the Columbia.

The Bradwood developers, Houston-based NorthernStar Natural Gas, seek to invest nearly $1 billion in a terminal that would receive two to three LNG shipments a week in large tankers from overseas. The super-cooled liquid gas would be stored in towering twin tanks, regassified and piped to markets in the Northwest and California.

FERC completed public hearings on the project this month. Written comment will be accepted through Dec. 24, and NorthernStar executives say they expect final approval in April.

But Oregon agencies have serious qualms about the draft version of FERC's environmental impact statement. The document "lacks assurance that Oregon standards have been or will be met," Michael Grainey, director of the Oregon Department of Energy, wrote in a Nov. 7 memo to the governor's staff.

More>>>www.oregonlive.com

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