FERC Releases Draft Environmental Analysis For Natural Gas Export In Southern Oregon
By: Waterkeeper Alliance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FERC releases draft environmental analysis for natural gas export in southern Oregon
Broad coalition opposes project due to harm to property rights, clean water, wildlife, and the climate
MEDFORD, OREGON – November 7, 2014 – Amidst stiff controversy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement today for the proposed Jordan Cove/Pacific Connector Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export project in southwest Oregon. The public has been given 90 days to comment on this massive and precedent-setting proposal.
The 36-inch Pacific Connector pipeline would clearcut a 230-mile long, 95-foot wide swath across fire-prone forests and private lands in southwest Oregon to carry fracked gas from the interior west and Canada to the proposed Jordan Cove export terminal on the north spit of Coos Bay, where it would be super-cooled, liquefied, and placed in large tankers for shipment overseas. The potentially explosive facilities would be placed on top of one of the most dangerous earthquake and tsunami zones in North America. The proposed route would impact nearly 400 waterways, including the Klamath, Rogue, Umpqua, Coquille and Coos Rivers, and threaten the continued viability of wildlife species such as salmon, northern spotted owls, and marbled murrelets.
“We will be taking a hard look at FERC’s environmental analysis of how this project will affect Oregon’s clean waters, wildlife, and wildlands,” said Susan Jane Brown, staff attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC). “Our early assessment is that the Jordan Cove/Pacific Connector project will not only unlawfully imperil the natural resources that we all hold dear, but also take the private property of Oregonians, all in the name of profits for foreign companies.” WELC represents a coalition of private citizens, fishermen, and conservationists who oppose the project, including landowners threatened with the use of eminent domain to take property against the will of private landowners.
“As landowners, we are astonished that our government would authorize the taking of our private property by eminent domain for the private profit of a foreign energy company to export Canadian gas through the United States,” said Bob Barker, a Shady Cove retiree and Vietnam veteran whose property would be cleared for pipeline construction. “This is wrong and we will fight this project by all available means.”
The Jordan Cove facility would also be a significant source of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, pouring more than 30 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year into the atmosphere, including emissions from the power plant, leakage from fracking sites, and the burning of the gas at the final destinations in Asia.
FERC’s review, however, refused to look at these big picture impacts. “An environmental review for LNG export is fundamentally flawed if it fails to consider the simple fact that exporting LNG will mean more drilling and fracking, and that means more climate pollution, more risk of contaminated groundwater, and more threats to the health of people who live near gas wells,” said Sierra Club attorney Nathan Matthews. “FERC needs to stand up for the public good, not the interests of dirty polluters.”
The Jordan Cove/Pacific export proposal is being considered on the heels of a recent report released by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change. The report stated that emissions, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels, may need to drop to zero by the end of this century for the world to have a decent chance of keeping the temperature rise below a level that many consider dangerous. On the release of the report, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stated, “Science has spoken. There is no ambiguity in their message. Leaders must act. Time is not on our side.”
“The science is clear that we need to leave fossil fuels in the ground and quickly make a shift to renewable energy,” said Lesley Adams, Western Regional Coordinator with the Waterkeeper Alliance. “We owe it to our grandchildren to tackle this problem head on and not punt it to future generations. The Jordan Cove export proposal would exacerbate a destructive pattern that is putting our very planet at risk, and it must be stopped.”
Contacts:
Susan Jane Brown, Western Environmental Law Center, 503-914-1323
Bob Barker, Affected Landowner, 541-878-5371
Lesley Adams, Waterkeeper Alliance, 541-897-0208