NorthernStar Natural Gas Friday delivered nearly 800 supporter postcards to Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski as part of a two-month campaign to rally labor organizations, families and small businesses in support of its plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal at Bradwood Landing on the Oregon side of the Columbia River just east of where it meets the Pacific Ocean. A total of 1,460 cards have been collected during the past two months, the company said.

NorthernStar cites economic, environmental and energy security advantages to its proposed LNG terminal, for which there are no contracts for supplies at this time. Bradwood reported earlier in September it was facing a slight delay in its U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local permitting process, but expects to stay on target for beginning construction during the second quarter of next year (see Daily GPI, Sept. 11).

A Portland, OR-based Bradwood spokesperson said the proposed 1 Bcf/d terminal is on the agenda for Thursday (Sept. 18) at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). If approved, the nearly $1 billion project would be given a certificate, conditioned upon it receiving all pending state and federal permits from other agencies.

In May NorthernStar received a request from the state environmental department for more project data, and the company now expects to be able to respond to the request by Sept. 30, according Gary Coppedge, senior vice president. As a result of the pending state environmental request, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has suspended its processing on the project until the data is filed with the state agency.

This caused Coppedge to ask the Corps to “temporarily suspend” the Bradwood application until the environmental filing is made, noting that the request “does not constitute a withdrawal of the pending application or a request to any other agency or entity to suspend or withdraw a pending application.”

Claiming it had a combination of postcards that have been sent alternately to the local county planning commission, FERC and the elected county commission, NorthernStar Senior Vice President Joe Desmond said Oregon families and businesses — each facing rising energy costs — “are letting their voices be heard.”

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