The three-member Oregon Land Use Appeals Board Tuesday postponed action on a challenge of the county land use permits awarded to NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc.’s proposed Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal along the Columbia River in Oregon. The board will next take up challenges to Clatsop County’s permits on Jan. 27.

Local approvals in Oregon continue to be an issue for three separate LNG receiving terminal proposals — a second one along the Columbia River and a third along the Pacific Coast at Coos Bay, OR. And a state legislator in Oregon’s lower house, Rep. Debroah Boone, indicated Monday that she has submitted a draft bill to the state legislative counsel seeking to strengthen state agencies’ authority over LNG siting.

Bradwood is still the only Oregon LNG project to receive both Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and county approvals, although the Clatsop County approvals are subject to the land use panel giving its opinion when asked. Backers of a second Columbia River project by Oregon LNG have stressed the fact that it has all of its local permits for the Warrenton, OR, site, including vetting by the Land Use Appeals Board, but Oregon LNG only recently filed with FERC (see Daily GPI, Oct. 13, 2008).

Another hurdle for Bradwood comes Thursday when FERC is supposed to rule on multiple appeals of the conditioned approval it gave the Bradwood project last September. The FERC action may decide whether Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski eventually files in federal court to challenge FERC’s Bradwood decision, according to a report in Tuesday’s Portland Oregonian.

The Jordan Cove LNG Project at Coos Bay had its local permitting challenged at the state appeals board last year, and in August the panel upheld the Coos County actions in permitting the site. The project is currently before FERC.

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