Editorial: Surprise, surprise
Posted: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 10:00 am
Boondoggle is an apt label for many big energy projects. Think Enron. Think Washington Public Power Supply System and its ambitious nuclear reactor building program. And now, think liquefied natural gas terminals.
Remember when Northern Star LLC hustled Clatsop County to gain land-use approval for an LNG import terminal at Bradwood. Skeptics of that plan doubted there was sufficient demand for imported natural gas. Northern Star insisted the facility was for natural gas import, not export.
Surprise, surprise. Now the energy world is buzzing with talk of natural gas exports. The proposed Jordan Cove LNG terminal in Coos Bay plans to submit an application for a natural gas export permit from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The fatal shortcoming of the LNG terminal siting process is lack of a national perspective. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has allowed the LNG licensing process to be only about who gets there first. It is a speculator’s dream. Thus we had big Texas money dropped on Clatsop County for a terminal that really wasn’t needed.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden’s response to the Jordan Cove request is: “I think it’s premature to conclude that the United States now has so much natural gas that it can afford to export it overseas. With Jordan Cove’s application, LNG terminals in the U.S. are already proposing to export more than 10 percent of the amount of natural gas that American businesses and consumers use every day. I think there ought to be a time-out on approving LNG exports until there is a better understanding of how much natural gas there is, whether it can be safely extracted, and what the impact on the U.S. economy would be from LNG exports.”
To rebalance the LNG siting process, Sen. Wyden has proposed legislation to give the states a larger role. That would have made a difference in the game that Bradwood played.
Clatsop County still has an active LNG terminal prospect in the project proposed by Oregon LNG, successor to Calpine. Does anyone believe that would be built for natural gas imports?
Oregon and many Oregonians would be better off if Enron never had purchased Portland General Electric. This newspaper published seven editorials spanning 1996-97 urging the Oregon Public Utility Commission not to approve the sale. Enron’s decline and fall became a national story.
The drive to export natural gas is already a national story, because allowing those exports would increase the price for domestic natural gas, to the detriment of business and residential customers.
Sen. Wyden is absolutely right on the need for a “time-out” on export licensing for Jordan Cove. And Wyden’s LNG siting legislation de-serves the support of every candidate in the special congressional election to fill the vacancy left by David Wu.
Prospects look dimmer for LNG terminal
A liquefied natural gas terminal on Coos Bay looks less likely, after last week's announcement that developers would focus on exports rather than imports. What's more, some local residents who supported an import terminal may lack the stomach for an export facility.
Until recently, developers of the Jordan Cove Energy Project have pooh-poohed the idea of exporting gas. Now that underground hydraulic fracturing is unleashing cheap Rocky Mountain gas, Jordan Cove is eating those words.
Whatever direction the gas flows, a terminal would bring economic benefit to the Bay Area. Legally and politically, however, an export terminal is far different from an import facility.
Connecting Coos Bay to all that Wyoming gas requires stretching the Pacific Connector Pipeline across many miles of private property. That task probably would require the condemnation authority of eminent domain. Acquiring that authority may be a challenge.
Using eminent domain for a private project requires developers to prove the project serves 'public convenience and necessity." Importing energy meets those criteria. But how does the American public benefit from shipping U.S. gas overseas?
Developers can argue that exports create jobs -- potentially dozens in the Bay Area. They may even argue that broadening the market for U.S. natural gas will create an incentive for drilling. But it's a weak case, especially if exporting gas raises prices for American consumers.
The idea of condemning private land for an export pipeline will make Jordan Cove even more controversial than it already is. Conservatives and liberals find common ground in defending the rights of property owners against profit-seeking developers.
The Jordan Cove developers consistently have emphasized the long-term nature of their strategy. In the long term, markets change, and so do laws and politics. At the moment, though, Jordan Cove's future seems to be receding over the horizon.
Posted in Editorial on Monday, September 26, 2011 11:00 am | Tags: Liquefied Natural Gas, Lng, Coos Bay, Jordan Cove Energy, Eminent Domain
Read more: http://theworldlink.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_42a203e2-a5a1-554c-99bb-784628b987b6.html#ixzz1ZB7SAptG
Groups sue Millennium over alleged Clean Water Act violations.
Vancouver and Longview citizens groups announced Tuesday they will sue the owner of a proposed coal dock in West Longview, contending that Millennium Bulk Terminals is violating the federal Clean Water Act by handling coal without a permit.
An attorney representing the two groups said he will file a federal suit within 60 days to force Millennium to obtain permits for cleanup work at the former Reynolds metals aluminum plant on Industrial Way. The two groups are Longview-based Land Owners and Citizens for a Safe Community and Vancouver-based Rosemere Neighborhood Association.
"Millennium is not a cleanup company. They are a newly formed company that's in the export business," said Gayle Kiser, president of the Longview group, an nonprofit with about 80 members in Cowlitz County.
Read more: http://tdn.com/news/local/article_ce213a80-c2e2-11e0-98b8-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1UbAZiHNn
Clatsop County appoints seven new planning commissioners.
http://www.crbizjournal.com/news/article_750831ec-a1b8-11e0-8308-001cc4c03286.html
Consider all the implications of coal terminal
Commentary by Teresa Purcell and Gary Lindstrom / For The Daily News | Posted: Sunday, June 19, 2011 12:20 am
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We can do better.
The fire at the Millennium Bulk Terminals site last week highlights the need for our community to have this property cleaned up once and for all. Given the legitimate concern over the potential toxic air pollution and related health impacts from this fire, our community should really be concerned about the long-term health and economic impact of having tons of coal going through Cowlitz County on rail cars and sitting out in the open on the Millennium site.
Also, beyond its potential for significant negative health impacts on our community, the coal terminal could have a potentially devastating impact on our ability to continue to grow our port and attract other cleaner, more sustainable industries by overwhelming our transportation and rail systems.
Based on the assumption that exporting 25 million metric tons of coal annually (keeping in mind the company has mentioned expanding to 80 million tons) would require 10 trains per day — each one over 1.37 miles long — the trains would most likely block three to four road crossings at a time. Those crossings likely to be affected are Third Avenue, California Way, Oregon Way, Industrial Way and the main entrance to the Weyerhaeuser mill site. These bottlenecks could tie up traffic, make people late for work, and limit opportunity to transport new commodities — all while spreading windblown coal dust for miles.
Millennium is hoping to continue down the path of increased pollution, risk, and relatively few jobs or benefits for our community, while Millennium and its multi-national corporate partners realize huge profits. Under its proposal to build a coal export facility, it is clear that they would get most of the benefit and we would get clogged transportation systems, dangerous health impacts, and alternative economic opportunities put at risk.
We can all agree that the site must be cleaned up, but we need to learn from lessons of the past. Chinook Ventures promised to do it, now Millennium has promised to do it — but at what cost? We have ended up with more pollution, few jobs and over 400 unusable acres of prime river front property.
Let's choose a different path. The state of Washington has ordered Alcoa, one of the world's richest corporations, to clean up the abandoned Reynolds aluminum site, now leased by Millennium. The bottom line is this: we don't need to depend on Millennium to get the property cleaned up. It's Alcoa's responsibility. Moreover, Millennium has proven to be unreliable and untrustworthy. Millennium has already been caught lying to our community and county commission about the volume of coal it ultimately wants to ship though its proposed port. Millennium clearly cannot be trusted to do what's right for our community.
Let's hold Alcoa accountable to its legal responsibility and make it clean up the polluted land and water now. We know Alcoa has the resources to make it happen. It's time to tell Alcoa "Do the job yourself". This would create clean up jobs immediately and provide for significant potential job growth in the future.
We know Alcoa knows how to do cleanup right. In Troutdale, Ore., Alcoa won a national award for a site cleanup, which lured a FedEx distribution center that employs 750 people. Alcoa has a track record of cleaning up aluminum mills and selling the land for productive use. In 2008, Washington forced Alcoa to spend $45 million at its Vancouver mill site to remove cancer-causing toxins, after which the Port of Vancouver bought the decontaminated land to accommodate the surge for wind energy cargo and create 1,000 jobs.
We can make it happen here — let's make Alcoa do what it has been ordered to do and clean up the site, creating hundreds of acres of usable industrial land to boost our economic future.
Let's choose the path to a better future and create the quality of place that brings with it good jobs, clean sustainable industry, and a healthy place to raise our families.
This commentary was submitted by Teresa Purcell and Gary Lindstrom, residents of Longview and readers of The Daily News.
Hess abandons Weaver’s Cove LNG project
By Chris Barrett
PBN Staff Writer
FALL RIVER – Hess LNG announced Monday it was abandoning plans to develop a controversial liquefied natural gas terminal in Weaver’s Cove.
Hess LNG President Gordon Shearer said changing economics led the company to withdraw applications for the $700 million facility in Mount Hope Bay proposed eight years ago.
More: FALL RIVER – Hess LNG announced Monday it was abandoning plans to develop a controversial liquefied natural gas terminal in Weaver’s Cove.
Hess LNG President Gordon Shearer said changing economics led the company to withdraw applications for the $700 million facility in Mount Hope Bay proposed eight years ago.
More: FALL RIVER – Hess LNG announced Monday it was abandoning plans to develop a controversial liquefied natural gas terminal in Weaver’s Cove.
Hess LNG President Gordon Shearer said changing economics led the company to withdraw applications for the $700 million facility in Mount Hope Bay proposed eight years ago.
More: http://www.pbn.com/Hess-abandons-Weavers-Cove-LNG-project,58983
Bait and Switch: Energy Independence Slogan Yields to Free Trade in LNG Debate
By Press Action
The battle over whether U.S. liquefied natural gas terminal owners should be allowed to export domestically produced natural gas is heating up.
Several LNG terminal owners have filed applications with the U.S. Department of Energy for authorization to export natural gas produced in the United States from their facilities, many of which were built last decade with the intent of importing — not exporting — LNG to meet what was perceived at the time as a growing demand for natural gas in the U.S.
More: http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/lngshalegas06032011/