noLNG

Gas terminal proposed on the Columbia River hits new snag

By Ted Sickinger, The Oregonian

September 29, 2009, 7:47PM

The marathon regulatory review of a liquefied natural gas terminal proposed on the Columbia River just got longer.

State and federal regulators want substantially more data and analysis on water quality impacts from the Bradwood Landing project before they can decide whether it meets clean water and endangered species standards.

The request was detailed last week in a letter from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the National Marine Fisheries Service to the project's backers, Houston-based NorthernStar Natural Gas, Inc.

DEQ told NorthernStar that the additional studies could significantly delay what has already been a four-year federal and state regulatory process.

The agency says it is unlikely to meet an April deadline to render a decision on Bradwood's clean water permit. It will meet with NorthernStar today to discuss findings from a third-party review of Bradwood's data analysis and determine if the company wants to withdraw or resubmit its application at a later date.

More: http://connect.oregonlive.com/user/tsicking/index.xml 

Students' welding scholarship falls apart

Bradwood Landing turns off torch on program before certification

By CASSANDRA PROFITA
The Daily Astorian

Seaside resident Renee Clark thought she would be starting another semester of school today with help from a Bradwood Landing Workers in Welding Scholarship to Clatsop Community College.

Instead, she is looking for work, awaiting answers from the liquefied natural gas developer and resenting the fact that the company is still using her name and voice in promotional advertisements.

Clark became a local poster girl for Bradwood Landing, the LNG project backed by NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc., of Houston, when she was selected to receive scholarship money to take welding classes at CCC.

She is featured in the company's newsletter saying Bradwood is "going to pump tax dollars and jobs into the community." Her voice of support for the Bradwood project has been running in local radio advertisements for more than a year.
More: http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=398&ArticleID=64436

Reader Comments

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Posted: Monday, September 28, 2009
Article comment by: Bobbie Isom

I too was a Bradwood welding scholarship recipient last year and expected to be again this year. But, unfortunately that didn't happen. I'm not mad that they decided not to renew the scholarships for this 2009-2010 school year as I know that the scholarships were all for public appearance sake anyways but, what does anger me is that they didn't even try to contact me to let me know. I didn't find out until less than a week before the start of the fall term, where as maybe I little more notice would have left me some time to arrange or apply for other scholarships. This is not going to stop me from finishing the program but, it is gonna make it a bit tougher financially. I am a single mother of two and without that scholarship I am left looking to student loans in order to cover school and childcare expenses. The least I feel bradwood could have done is give us a decent reason for hanging us out to dry like this and maybe a little notice-since they stated in this article that they only planned on the scholarship lasting for 2 years...maybe they could have told us that??

LTE The Oregonian

Dear Editorial Board:

You haven't been here.  You haven't been here to know that Clatsop County's professional planning staff recommended denial of the Bradwood Landing LNG proposal.  You haven't been here to see that Mitch Rose, the expert planning consultant hired by the County Commission to guide them through the process recommended denial as well.

You haven't been here to realize that approximately 80% of the hundreds of local citizens who testified at public hearings opposed Bradwood Landing LNG.  You haven't seen the surprise 11th hour replacement on the Planning Commission to engineer a favorable vote on Bradwood.

You haven't witnessed the disdain shown by County Commissioners toward their constituents.  You weren't here last week to see the Commission approve a zoning change that nullifies the effect of a referendum passed last year by a full two-thirds of the county's voters.

You probably don't know that the people whom the Bradwood promoters and some commissioners try to characterize as "extreme environmentalists" are just local teachers, librarians, artists, small business owners, accountants, and retired volunteers.  And none of them has anything to gain financially from their position, unlike those behind the proposal. 

May I also add that you apparently have not read the report from the Oregon Energy Department which disagrees with the claim that LNG is needed here and with the idea that it will help lower natural gas prices.

Excuse me for being cynical but all of your editorials supporting LNG on the Columbia River have read a lot like the brochures put out by the promoters.  In Portland, you probably have plenty of friendly contact with the folks from Northwest Natural, which has a big stake in the Bradwood project.  It would be nice and journalistically more principled if you at least took the time to have one conversation with the opponents as well.
Roger Rocka, Astoria.

 

Business, Environment, Hot Topic, Politics, oped »

LNG opponents make their case for recall of Clatsop commissioners

By Guest Opinion

September 28, 2009, 2:00PM

   
 By MARC AUERBACH
 
Forty miles up the Columbia River from Astoria, Bradwood Landing was an industrial site from 1856 through 1965 and will be again if final state permits are issued for a liquefied natural gas terminal proposed by NorthernStar Natural Gas. The Oregonian editorial board's stance opposing recall in Clatsop County shows little understanding of Oregon's constitution and even less understanding of what is going on here at the coast to warrant recall. ("Recall misused in Clatsop LNG fight," Sept. 26).

The Oregonian is simply factually incorrect when it asserts the process is being misused and should be reserved for those who commit illegal acts. The more apt analogy is to the disciplinary process between an employer and an employee. The county commissioners work for us. The recall process explicitly enables us to fire them just as one might fire an employee.

The Oregonian draws the astonishing conclusion that the commissioners "appear to have voted correctly in accordance with Oregon land-use law." Say what? Did it somehow escape notice that the decision was remanded by the Land Use Board of Appeals as being in error? Proponents are fond of remarking on LUBA remanding only two of 22 appealed issues. Oops, the two issues happen to be the scale of the liquified natural gas project, and the ability to protect fishing and threatened and endangered fish.

It's as if one came out of a medical exam declaring perfect health, but saying, "99 percent of the tests were negative. There was just the one test for cancer that was positive."

What led us to recall? The unfair process of the remand hearing on the LUBA appeal. NorthernStar Natural Gas had five months to prepare the draft findings. They were released just prior to the July 4th weekend with a deadline of Monday noon. Even so, 617 pages of new comment were received. But every word was then scrutinized by county counsel and large portions of it redacted. That's right: blacked out.

At the public hearing the commission did not even request the customary staff review and comment on the findings. Nor was county counsel asked for a legal opinion on the substance of the findings. Five hours of negative public testimony that day were later expunged from the official record. The commissioners systematically insulated themselves from new information and any potentially contrarian views.

In a 4-1 vote the findings were preliminarily adopted with a couple of minor grammatical changes. Imagine the surprise  when the final findings for adoption swelled from 22 to 69 pages; dozens of pages of new argument and rebuttal not deliberated upon in public. NorthernStar wrote these words and the Clatsop County board adopted them as their own without question. NorthernStar put those words in their mouths as assuredly as a ventriloquist gives voice to his dummy.

The decision is once again being appealed and I believe it will be overturned again. Why? Because the arguments made by NorthernStar in support of the Bradwood Landing LNG project in their carefully constructed, hermetically sealed world were recapitulations of their old arguments. Like a frustrated local repeating directions to a tourist, only louder: "PROTECTS SALMON; IS SMALL TO MEDIUM IN SIZE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

No, we don't. It is not merely opposition to LNG that spawned this action, but the perversion of the public process, the contortions of the English language, the kowtowing to corporate interests in order to shoehorn a project into a country that doesn't need it, into a state that doesn't deserve it and into a county that doesn't want it. For these reasons we support the recall of commissioners Jeff Hazen, Ann Samuelson and Patricia Roberts.

Marc Auerbach is a director of Democracy in District 5, the PAC promoting the recall of Ann Samuelson

Thursday, September 24, 2009

LNG rally in downtown Astoria brings out pros and cons (Video)

By JOE GAMM
The Daily Astorian

Thursday, September 24, 2009

A pool of red flowed back and forth across the intersection of Commercial and Ninth streets in downtown Astoria Wednesday afternoon.

About 80 protesters in red T-shirts with anti-liquefied natural gas (LNG) slogans printed across them chanted their slogans and encouraged passers by to honk if they opposed LNG.

"We've been fighting this for five years," said Olivia Schmidt, a Portland-based leader for Columbia Riverkeeper.

The rally was being held in anticipation of a Clatsop County Board of Commissioners meeting later that evening in the Judge Guy Boyington Building. The Board was scheduled to hold a quasi-judicial hearing on a zone change for Sam Karamanos.

Karamanos owns 121 acres where he asked for the zone change from open space, parks and recreation (OPR) to lake and wetland while reducing the residential zone on the tract. Changing the zoning would remove a barrier blocking the development of the Bradwood Landing LNG project pipeline.

Members approved the change 4-1 (See related story)

http://www.dailyastorian.info/print.asp?ArticleID=64339&SectionID=2&SubSectionID=395

Clatsop County commissioners vote 4-1 to approve LNG pipeline zone change

The Daily Astorian

Four of five Clatsop County Commissioners say they have no evidence a pipeline might pass through Westport property owned by Sam Karamanos.

Not in the piles of maps showing the proposed route of a natural gas pipeline.

Not in the hours of testimony opposing the pipeline and the attached liquefied natural gas facility at Bradwood Landing.

Not the public statements Karamanos has made saying he stands to make a lot of money when the pipeline goes through his property.

More: http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?FromHome=1&TypeID=1&ArticleID=64314&SectionID=2&SubSectionID=398

(blogger)They cann't be for real or can they? That's what the Recall is all about.

Excerpts from attendee: What was not fun - but fascinating in its own perverse way - was watching our county commissionersearnestly work to justify their votes in favor of this absurd zone change request.  PETER HUHTALA testified that tonight's hearing was like playing "Let's pretend" when he was growing up, as in "Let's pretend this isn't about LNG."  But of course our county commissioners denied that this zone change has anything to do with LNG and approved it as fast as they could, 4 to 1, without any apparent shame.  Bravo to Commissioner Dirk Rohne for his strong NO.

The landowner's stated reason for asking for a rezone is so he can restore wetlands and leave house lots to his descendants.  However, as Brett Vandenheuvel and others pointed out, he's allowed to do that right now with the current OPR zoning.  The only new use in the zoning change is pipelines.  The only benefit of this zone change to the owner  - which he admitted to Vicki Baker and Brett VandenHeuvel - is that he will get a lot of money to let an LNG pipeline go through his land.

LOWLIGHTS:  Jeff Hazen - he who is being recalled - tried to accuse Dirk Rohne of having an improper 'ex parte' contact because he talked with his constituents.    Patricia Roberts - she who soon will be recalled - was more concerned about punctuation than about the homeowners at River Ranch who face the loss of their property values, their homes, and peace of mind if a pipeline is routed through their development, which is what this rezone allows.  Emil Nyberg of Astoria insulted us all by implying that NO LNGers are all paid agents of some sinister far-away force.  Sounds like he was describing Bradwood Landing, doesn't it???

Washington-Action Agency Estuary Habitat Memorandum of Agreement Signed

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 4:48:57 PM

From:	Public Affairs <publicaffairs@bpa.gov> Add to Contacts
To:	Public Affairs <publicaffairs@bpa.gov>

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Sept. 16, 2009 - Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire strengthened the state’s salmon-protection partnership with federal agencies by signing a memorandum of agreement that will accelerate habitat protection and restoration in the Columbia River estuary. The state, Bonneville Power Administration, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will provide additional funding for Columbia River estuary habitat. The MOA adds $40.5 million to the $49.5 million the BiOp already dedicates to estuary habitat through 2018, strengthening the already far-reaching federal commitment to improve fish stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act.  

 

The new MOA will work in concert with implementation of the 2008 Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinion and also will support BPA's implementation of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. A public comment period on the then-proposed MOA was held from April 3 through May 4, 2009.  

 

Link to letter announcing BPA's Record of Decision: http://www.efw.bpa.gov/environmental_services/Document_Library/Implementation_Plan/Final_WA_Estuary_MOA_ROD_Availability_Letter_to_Interested_Stakeholder.pdf

 

For more information, please visit: http://www.salmonrecovery.gov/Biological_Opinions/FCRPS/2008_biop/estuary-hab-wa.cfm

Pot still boiling in Clatsop County over LNG

By Lori Tobias, The Oregonian

September 22, 2009, 4:40PM

View full sizeSteve Nehl/The OregonianThis group was part of about 200 people who were protesting plans for a liquified natural gas facility at Bradwood Landing in Clatsop County on Aug. 8, 2007. The issue remains divisive.You don't have to look far these days to find the discord in Clatsop County.

Demonstrators plan to converge in a rally Wednesday afternoon in downtown Astoria; a recall election looms for two county commissioners; and a petition is under way to gather signatures for an election to recall a third.

And it's all about three simple words: liquid natural gas, more commonly known as LNG.

More: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/09/pot_still_boiling_in_clatsop_c.html

Spirit of the River - Astoria, Oct 3rd at 7pm, Clatsop Community College Performing Arts Center

CRK's Estuary Coordinator Cheryl Johnson has organized another wonderful evening of music, poetry, dance, spoken word, and fine art. The event includes hors d'oeuvres, music and a silent auction of works by favorite regional artists - all proceeds go to our fight against LNG.  Robin Cody, award-winning author of Voyage of a Summer Sun (which CRK Director Brett finally read and highly recommends) is the featured performer.

www.spiritoftheriver.org

 

New York Times, Opinion

September 20, 2009

Editorial

Not There on Salmon

The Obama administration has submitted an amended version of a Bush administration plan to rescue 13 endangered and threatened salmon species in the Pacific Northwest. The fish may be better off under this plan. But under the Endangered Species Act, better off is not enough. The act requires the government to make every effort to ensure a species’ long-term survival.

Judge James A. Redden of Federal District Court in Oregon will decide whether the plan meets that requirement. We do not believe that it does. Judge Redden has already rejected two federal plans for restoring salmon, one from the Clinton administration and one from the Bush administration. He was on the verge of ruling on a second Bush plan when the Obama administration asked for time to review it and strengthen it where necessary.

The administration has added several enhancements. It offers $100 million a year to improve salmon habitat; pledges new efforts to control invasive species and other predators; and promises to monitor the potential impacts of climate change, which could create serious problems for cold-water species like salmon.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/opinion/20sun2.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=print 

Start with protection of the estuary and tidal areas, no LNG regasification or other large water dependent industries. (blogger)