NorthernStar Natural Gas attempted last Friday to squash an allegation made earlier in August by U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and a local newspaper that the proponents of the Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal along the Columbia River were secretly planning to export LNG from the facility.

The junior senator from Oregon is trying to get an amendment in pending national energy legislation to bar the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from certifying an LNG terminal that could be used for export and told the Daily Astorian there is a “dirty little secret” that U.S. natural gas shortages are “illusory.”

“You can only make money if you move gas from low- to high-cost locations. If you invest several billion dollars in infrastructure and find out the American natural gas price stayed lower than anticipated, the only way to make money would be to export [the gas]. I expect this to be in the back of the minds of those building the terminals,” Merkley said, as quoted in the editorial.

The newspaper editorialized against both the Bradwood Landing and the competing Oregon LNG proposed terminals, the latter being the one at Warrenton, OR, on the Skipanon Peninsula.

In rebuttal, Bradwood backers wrote a letter to the newspaper that was published last Friday, reiterating that it would “sign a contract” with Oregon or an appropriate federal agency committing that the terminal would never be used to export LNG. The idea of exporting LNG from an Oregon terminal is “patently absurd,” wrote NorthernStar Natural Gas official Charles Deister.

“The basic premise behind LNG is to move natural gas from places of abundant (and easier to access) supply with little demand to places with low supply and high demand,” said Deister, noting that while U.S. gas reserves are significant currently, most are “unconventional,” meaning more expensive to produce. “We began the permitting process for Bradwood Landing six years ago with a view to the long-term gas market in the Northwest, and we are confident that our project can deliver LNG equal to or below the local wholesale prices of gas.”

NorthernStar’s Bradwood LNG project along the Columbia River received a reaffirmation of local political support earlier this summer from the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, which voted 4-1 for its staff to bring before it a revised final land-use plan supporting the LNG project’s development. The revisions involved definitional issues that the state Land-Use Appeals Board asked the local authorities to correct (see Daily GPI, July 21).

Following the land-use appeals unit’s direction, Clatsop County directed its staff to bring before it revised land-use findings to refer to the statewide planning goal definition of the word “protect,” and clarify that Bradwood Landing does indeed meet the county’s definition of “small or moderate” scale development.

The Daily Astorian editorial chastised the Clatsop County officials as “either naive or standing in line for their share of the profit,” contending that the heavily promoted new jobs and greater local tax base are being overstated by the proponents. “Hidden beneath the rationale of jobs and tax base…[is the fact that] the drive to develop an LNG terminal at Bradwood is about enormous profit.”

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