LNG company’s plan to buy its own gas stinks

The Oregon LNG/Pipeline company proposes to sell gas to itself — liquefied natural gas that is shipped from afar, unloaded in Warrenton at the inlet to the Columbia River, and piped through Coast Range mountains and Willamette Valley to Molalla.

Why? Because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will give Oregon LNG/Pipeline the right to seize private properties by eminent domain if the company can demonstrate a committed buyer for the gas. In fact, 'committed buyer' is the only criterion that FERC uses to conclude a public need for constructing a pipeline.

Let’s be clear: a company proposes to sell LNG to itself to prove that there is a buyer for the gas so that FERC can rule that a public need and necessity exists to seize private property against the intense objections of hundreds of land owners.

Who suffers? Construction of the giant pipeline will destroy thousands of acres of productive farms and prime forests and wreak havoc on streams, rivers, fish, birds and wildlife!

Oregon LNG/Pipeline is gambling that the future will bring real purchasers for their gas, but if FERC buys that ploy, the losers will be all who live in Oregon long after the gamblers have departed.

Allen Neuringer