Clatsop County votes against LNG project in Warrenton

The Oregonian
By Ted Sickinger

The Clatsop County Board of Commissioners voted 4-to-1 Wednesday to reverse its earlier approval of a pipeline that would serve the proposed Oregon LNG terminal in Warrenton. The vote marks another major victory for those who oppose importing liquefied natural gas to Oregon, throwing the viability of the controversial project in doubt after years of engineering, environmental and permitting struggles.

Oregon LNG and its backer, New York-based Leucadia National Corp., had already filed a motion in Clatsop County Circuit Court to preempt the board, contending that commissioners had already made an irreversible decision that the project was consistent with county land use laws.

Oregon LNG contends that the deadline to reconsider that approval has already passed and asked the court to reaffirm the county's original decision. A judge signed that petition, which will compel the county to appear in court and argue its position by March 18.

If the court backs the county, the Oregon LNG terminal is likely dead in the water, and would become the second of three proposed LNG terminals in Oregon derailed by opposition in Clatsop County.

If the project backer prevails, it still faces a long line of federal, state and local permitting hurdles. With burgeoning U.S. gas reserves due to shale gas drilling, it's not clear there is any need for the terminals or that the economics of importing natural gas still make sense. The developers maintain that their project is still economically viable.

The Oregon LNG proposal includes an import terminal in Warrenton, near the mouth of the Columbia River, as well as a 120-mile pipeline that would loop southeast to Molalla, carrying the terminal's gas to market in the Willamette Valley and beyond. About 41 miles of that pipeline are within Clatsop County.

The county's five-member Board of Commissioners had previously voted that the pipeline project was consistent with county land use laws. But three newly elected commissioners were sworn in Jan. 12 and immediately voted to re-examine their predecessors' approval of the pipeline.

Last week, Clatsop County staff recommended denial of the project. Commissioners agreed with that recommendation Wednesday night.

County Manager Duane Cole said the county will address Oregon LNG's challenge of their decision in court within the next two weeks.

Opponents of LNG have already killed one proposed project, the Bradwood Landing LNG terminal east of Astoria. Backers of that project abandoned their permitting odyssey last year after the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals kicked Clatsop County's approval of the project back for more information for the second time. The backer of that project, Texas-based NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc., eventually declared bankruptcy, and a court last week vacated the federal license for the project

A third terminal in Coos Bay has its license from federal energy regulators, but is still working through a thicket of state and federal environmental and land use permits.