A county ballot referendum on land-use conditional permits that was backed by opponents of the proposed Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal along the Oregon side of the Columbia River was passed by voters Tuesday (68-32%), but both opponents and supporters of the LNG project agreed that the vote will have no impact on the ongoing permitting process for the nearly $1 billion project.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is scheduled to vote on the project, and Bradwood’s sponsors are expecting a heavily conditioned approval contingent upon all state and federal permits being obtained for the 1 Bcf/d receiving terminal, according to a Portland, OR-based spokesperson for NorthernStar Natural Gas who was in Washington, DC, Wednesday in anticipation of the federal action.

Ironically, although the local Oregon LNG opponents supported the county measure that effectively bans natural gas pipelines from passing through park/recreational lands, it will only eliminate one small condition, among many, that the Clatsop County elected board of commissioners imposed on NorthernStar’s LNG project last March when it granted the project a land-use permit.

“The only message you can take away from the vote is that voters said they don’t want pipelines in parks, and we were never proposing one in a park in the first place,” said the project spokesperson, referring to the special mail-in ballot in Clatsop County. “The vote actually makes our permitting slightly easier by eliminating the need to go back to the county to seek the conditional use permit. It really has no impact.”

Part of the county-imposed conditions was a requirement that Bradwood would seek a conditional use permit for a small fraction (0.7 mile) for a 38-mile, 36-inch diameter pipeline running from the plant that crossed some private land zoned for open space park and recreation uses with no plans for that use. The granting of the “conditional use permit” for that small portion of the project was viewed by the referendum backers (and LNG opponents) as an unlawful change in the local land-use law.

The proposed pipeline is needed to connect the LNG receiving terminal with The Williams Cos. interstate pipeline (Northwest) running through the region.

In the interim, the Clatsop County Counsel ruled that it was all academic as it pertained to the Bradwood LNG project because the county had no jurisdiction over natural gas pipelines. So even though the ballot measure said the conditional use permit was granted in error, it is not needed for NothernStar to proceed with its project that is awaiting some final FERC decision and federal air/water permits that are processed through the state.

NorthernStar still hopes to begin construction of the terminal in the third or fourth quarter next year on a project that still needs to line up long-term LNG supply contracts.

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