Local tussles continued into the new year with the ongoing comments and reactions to a draft environmental review of NorthernStar Natural Gas’s proposed Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal along the Columbia River in Oregon (see Daily GPI, Dec. 27, 2007). Local county and FERC officials traded comments over the holiday period focusing on some third parties that are part of the debate.

In the meantime, the comment period closed Dec. 24 on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) draft environmental impact statement (EIS), and that caused some eleventh-hour action by the Clatsop County Commission.

In addition to the EIS process stirring up various environmental concerns, a local guest opinion column by an engineer with past LNG experience appeared Dec. 27 in a suburban Portland newspaper raising various safety concerns and questions about whether Oregon should be pursuing LNG imports at a time when “renewables are finally getting some traction and investment.”

“The ‘new jobs’ arguments of LNG proponents are very shortsighted,” wrote Don Hennig, a professional engineer who in 1973 helped review and evaluate environmental and public safety issues associated with a proposed LNG terminal on Staten Island, NY, for the state regulatory commission. “The people and economies and environments of Oregon and southwest Washington would be much better served by encouraging further development of renewable energy sources.”

Having been diverted by post-storm recovery efforts earlier in December, Clatsop County officials were unable to submit their own comments on the draft EIS, but they decided to piggyback on the work of an intergovernmental organization, the Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce (CREST), that submitted comments on the draft FERC document. In turn, NorthernStar had complained about some of the parts of the CREST submittal.

On Dec. 20 NorthernStar’s Senior Vice President Joe Desmond wrote the Clatsop County Manager Scott Derickson to clarify some of the parts of the CREST work that the company found troubling. Desmond cited “significant errors” in the CREST study. “Numerous statements are factually inaccurate, speculative, or inconsistent with the county’s own findings,” Desmond said in his letter.

Desmond took exception to the CREST characterization of the proposed LNG operations at Bradwood Landing and their ultimate impact on the surrounding community’s economy and quality of life. In the end, he reminded the county that it was “under no legal obligation” to comment on the FERC draft EIS; it was a decision “at the discretion of the [elected] board.

“Considering the errors [cited], the inconsistency with the commission’s own record, and external review and comment, we request that the county take no action unless it is prepared to undertake a thorough and comprehensive review of the document.”

Nevertheless, the county decided to submit the CREST work to FERC with the caveat in a cover letter from its general counsel saying the document did not represent the views of the county officials.

“I think this report is too broad and does not reflect the opinion of the county or our planning department, planning commission, nor our board,” said Richard Lee, chairman of the Clatsop County Commission in a local news report in the Daily Astorian in Astoria, OR.

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