Molalla Pioneer: Palomar withdraws pipeline application

Molalla Pioneer
By Bethany Monroe

Palomar Gas Transmissions filed a notice of withdrawal today for their application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build a natural gas pipeline that would have traveled through Oregon, including some private properties outside Molalla.

David Dodson, a spokesman for Palomar, said the company hopes to re-file for another Oregon pipeline project in the future, but it would only include the east end section of the pipeline, not the west.

Several factors weighed in on Palomar’s decision to withdraw the project, Dodson said, including the bankruptcy of NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc. and the termination of the related Bradwood Landing LNG project.

“Another unanticipated change was the recession,” Dodson said. “We couldn’t predict that demand would drop off in 2008 the way it did.”

Palomar also reached an agreement with the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation that would allow them to route a future pipeline through part of the reservation, Dodson said, shortening the route by about 10 miles and reducing impacts on Mt. Hood National Forest by about 30 percent.

Read more on this story in next week’s edition of the Molalla Pioneer.