Bill Clinton in Astoria, OR.

ALEX PAJUNAS — The Daily Astorian Former President Bill Clinton stops to meet with crowd members and address their concerns and interests in the upcoming presidential election. ALEX PAJUNAS — The Daily Astorian Former President Bill Clinton prepares to meet with crowd members after a 52-minute speech outside of the Columbia River Maritime Museum.

A visit of presidential importance
Clinton blasts federal rules on LNG sites

By CASSANDRA PROFITA
The Daily Astorian

In his speech before hundreds gathered at the Columbia River Maritime Museum plaza Monday, former President Bill Clinton presented his case for making Hillary Clinton the Democratic nominee for president.

Chief among his arguments was her stance on liquefied natural gas.

Hillary Clinton's backers boast that she, unlike her Democratic rival Barack Obama and Republican nominee John McCain, voted against the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which took the power to site LNG terminals away from states and gave it to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

"It stripped you of the right to approve the siting of your own LNG facilities, and that was wrong," Clinton said Monday.

Two of the three LNG terminals proposed in Oregon are on the Columbia River. One is at a site in Warrenton, and another is 20 miles east of Astoria at Bradwood Landing.

On Monday, standing on the 17th Street dock along the Columbia River, Clinton said the projects "would burden you."

"Look behind me," he said.

If all three LNG terminals are built, he said they would deliver "two and a half times as much liquefied natural gas as Oregon and Washington use every year."

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