NorthernStar Energy LLC’s Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, slated for development along the Columbia River in Oregon, won a favorable recommendation Thursday from the Clatsop County Planning Commission. The unit voted to recommend that the county’s Board of Commissioners issue land-use approvals, authorizing the proposed $600 million, 1.3 Bcf/d terminal be built.

The planning commission’s action to approve or approve-with-conditions some changes requested by the LNG project sponsors led to the overall positive recommendation of the project, according to Joe Desmond, a NorthernStar senior vice president, who earlier in August told NGI that local planning/zoning issues need to be resolved in the next few months, along with a series of public hearings beginning in October on the Bradwood Landing draft environmental documents (see Daily GPI, Aug. 20).

Marking another step forward in the local permitting for the LNG terminal project, which has drawn a variety of local opponents, NorthernStar CEO Si Garrett said the project proponents are “looking forward to presenting our case before the Clatsop commissioners and demonstrating how our project will boost the local and regional economies, enhance environmental health of the lower Columbia River, and provide a stable supply of natural gas to the Pacific Northwest.”

NorthernStar said the county commission will begin holding pubic hearings on the Bradwood project in October with a final decision expected in mid-November. It said the planning commission’s recommendation is not binding, but the unit’s decision to support the project “is a significant milestone and follows a similar recommendation made by the [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] staff on the draft environmental impact statement Aug. 17.

NorthernStar could start construction in the first of half of next year, following a “positive recommendation” from FERC staff in the project’s draft environmental review.

“If things go according to the schedule, we would hope for a final license some time in the first quarter of 2008,” Desmond said. At this point, NorthernStar has no agreements with any suppliers or buyers of gas at the terminal.

The Oregon terminal would be located on a 40-acre site at the former townsite of Bradwood in Clatsop County, OR, about 38 miles up the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean.

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