The Pacific Northwest has been coined the Thin Green Line between fossil fuels and a clean energy future thanks to sophisticated and successful grassroots campaigns by residents that put people and the planet before profit. Over the last decade, multiple proposals for coal and oil exports in Washington and Oregon have been thwarted by passionate residents who refuse to put their communities and climate at risk, especially when safer solutions are available.
For over a decade, Rogue Riverkeeper and partners have worked to stop the Jordan Cove Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export and pipeline proposal in Oregon, which threatens water, people, fish, wildlife, private property, and the climate. The proposal was rejected as unnecessary, especially in light of the negative impacts on landowners on the pipeline route, by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2016 before it was revived by the Trump administration in 2017. Jordan Cove is the final of three LNG export proposals on the U.S. west coast; Columbia Riverkeeper and partners stopped the first two during the Obama administration.
This project would require a 229-mile pipeline across private and public land, creating a 95-foot wide clear-cut through southwest Oregon’s forests and farms to transport fracked gas from Canada and the U.S. Rockies overseas, terminating on the coast at an export facility in Coos Bay, Oregon. “Jordan Cove LNG puts more than 400 rivers and streams, our imperiled salmon, and rural communities at risk to export a dinosaur fuel that is creating climate chaos for future generations,” explains Robyn Janssen, Rogue Riverkeeper. “Rogue Riverkeeper and our partners will not stand idle while the Trump administration lets coal, oil and gas companies defile the earth for their profit while saddling our grandchildren with dire consequences.”
Because the facility is aimed at exporting LNG, this project will not even help the U.S. achieve “energy independence.” Instead of expanding the use of fossil fuels to benefit corporate special interests, we should be investing in a faster transition to clean energy jobs and greater energy efficiency.
On May 21, Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened a 60-day public comment period for two important Clean Water Act permits for the Jordan Cove proposal. Similar gas pipelines in New York, Maryland, and Oregon have been stopped through the Clean Water Act process because of impacts to rivers, streams, and wetlands.
Join the growing chorus that is opposed to Jordan Cove and demanding we pivot to a clean energy future. You can help stop this project by submitting quick comments to ask that agencies deny permits for the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and fracked gas pipeline. Submit your comment online today.