Portland Business Journal - by Erik Siemers Business Journal staff writer

The developer of a proposed 234-mile natural gas pipeline has filed a federal lawsuit against two Oregon land officials the developer claims are improperly using state law to delay the project.

Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline LP claims that delays to the Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline project appear to be part of a “pervasive opposition” among Oregon state officials to liquefied natural gas terminals and pipelines.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court, pits Pacific Connector against Louise Solliday, director of the Oregon Department of State Lands, and Richard Whitman, director of the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development.

The proposed natural gas pipeline would snake diagonally across Oregon, starting from the proposed Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas terminal near Coos Bay and ending near Milan in the state’s southeastern corner.

It would be constructed and managed through a partnership between The Williams Companies Inc., a Tulsa, Okla.-based natural gas transportation firm; Fort Chicago Energy Partners LP of Calgary, Alberta; and PG&E Strategic Capital Inc.

In the lawsuit, Pacific Connector says regulation of pipeline projects is strictly the domain of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

But before granting a permit for construction, the Department of State Lands is requiring the pipeline developers to obtain signatures from about 220 landowners whose property may be affected.

Without that permit, the state Department of Land Conservation and Development will not review whether the project is consistent with the federal Coastal Zone Management Act — a requirement to getting certification from federal regulators, according to the lawsuit.

More: http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2010/08/30/daily17.html?t=printable