Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is a hazardous fuel frequently shipped in large tankers from overseas to U.S. ports. LNG is also manufactured domestically and is often stored near population centers. Because LNG infrastructure is highly visible and easily identified, in can be vulnerable to terrorist attack.
—Congressional Research Service Report, Update: June 3, 2005

By Dave Mazza

The issue seems obvious: Moving and storing large amounts of a highly explosive liquid is in no one’s interest. Unfortunately, those who stand to make billions of dollars off the development of the Lower Columbia River into a major depot for liquefied natural gas are more than willing to overlook those hazards.

Northern Star, a company specializing in the development and management of more than 65 LNG plants here and abroad, took the lead by filing way ahead of the competition to build an LNG depot at Bradwood, an abandoned mill town in a small valley near the town of Cathlemet. The 55-acre facility would receive LNG-bearing ships and pump the volatile liquid through a pipeline running under the river and into Washington. Northern Star officials point out that a range of hills provides adequate protection to nearby residents should something go wrong.

Those assurances haven’t slowed the growing opposition to the project. Various environmental groups and others have joined local residents in opposing the Bradwood plant. Some are concerned about safety, others the development of an energy that is not truly sustainable. Others see the plant at odds with a vision for a different kind of development that is focused on the best of what is local.

Now that opposition is taking on an overt political aspect with the integration of the issue into Oregon’s Pacific Green Party’s various candidate campaigns. The party voted in opposition to the LNG terminals at their June 2006 convention. Now, however, that message is coming through the various candidates starting to rev up their campaign for the November election.

“As governor, my priority will be for an energy-independent Oregon,” stated Joe Keating, the Pacific Green Party candidate for governor at a public meeting in Roseburg on Aug. 20. “LNG terminals are bad for the environment and bad for our long-term economic viability.”

Keating, whose campaign is focusing on what he sees as significant and expensive flaws in Governor Ted Kulongoski’s policies, believes the LNG question fits the profile he thinks could make his opponent a one-term governor. While the governor has ordered state agencies to be fully involved in the LNG licensing process here in Oregon, he has not come out openly against LNG — possibly a strategic error considering the rapid growth and diversity of the opposition.

Keating will not be the only candidate carrying the anti-LNG message in the fall. Paul Aranas is making a run for the House’s Fifth District as a Green candidate. At the state level, Jeff Cropp is running for the Oregon House of Representatives’ 42nd District and Paul Loney is running for the House seat in the 46th district. These Green candidates publicly oppose LNG and intend on making the issue part of their campaigns.

The Greens also see this as a window of opportunity to advance their positions on other energy-related issues including the development of bio-diesel and the curbing of global warming gases. The latter, in particular, has been used by some as a way to trot out old rejected energy sources like nuclear. For the Greens and others, it is important that the very real hazards of global warming are not used to justify such equally dangerous energy sources as nuclear.

Due to the reorganization of the process by the Bush administration, the LNG question in Oregon all comes down to the decision made by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sometime next year. How well the opposition can influence the commission remains to be seen; however, the accumulation of elected officials and local municipalities is a big help. The Greens are hoping to score big on this front by not just persuading sitting lawmakers but putting some of their own into the mix. November will tell how well that strategy plays out.

Dave Mazza is the editor of The Portland Alliance.