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Agency: Oregon doesn't need imported LNG

May 09, 2008
TED SICKINGER
The Oregonian

In a potentially fatal blow to three proposals to build liquefied natural gas terminals in Oregon, the state Department of Energy released a report Friday stating that imported LNG isn't needed, would be more expensive and polluting than domestic natural gas, and would come at a higher environmental cost than alternative proposals to ship more gas in from Wyoming.

Also Friday, Gov. Ted Kulongoski sent a letter to federal energy regulators asking them to go through an entirely new environmental analysis of the Bradwood Landing LNG project, as significant new information has become available, and the scope of the terminal project, located 30 miles upriver from Astoria, has changed substantially since the last review was undertaken.

Kulongoski's energy policy director, Mike Carrier, said the letter and report did not mean that the governor was adopting a hardened position against the terminals, but that he wanted to see the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission address the state's concerns before issuing its licensing decision.

The Department of Energy report "raises some really troubling issues about what the introduction around LNG would do" in terms of energy prices and environmental impacts, Carrier said. The governor believes this report is credible, it looks like they did a very professional and thorough job, and it immediately got his attention ... It certainly is going to be part of what forms his position on this."

Ted Sickinger : 503-221-8532; tedsickinger@news.oregonian.com

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