Video From Today's Press Conference
Anti-LNG protesters at a news conference earlier this month. Photo by Dennis Newman.
The day after the “big news”, Oregon’s anti-LNG coalition was confident and looking ahead to the next fight against LNG in Oregon.
“A great day for salmon”. “A huge victory for Oregon families”. This is how they described the news that work on the Bradwood Landing LNG project was being suspended, and that the company behind it was filing for bankruptcy.
The next logical target is the Palomar Pipeline. This is a highly controversial pipeline that has farmers up in arms, and environmentalists worried about the damage it could do to old growth trees and watersheds.
Palomar was supposed to connect with Bradwood and carry the gas 220-miles east to an interstate pipeline junction near Maupin. The proposed path takes it through some of Oregon’s prime farm land in the Willamette Valley, and leaves a 47-mile clear cut in the Mt. Hood National Forest.
NW Natural, one of Palomar’s developers, says the death of Bradwood doesn’t kill the entire project. It says they are looking at their options for the western end of the pipeline – the part that would have connected to Bradwood. But the eastern side of Palomar is a different story. NW Natural President and CEO Gregg Kantor says the eastern segment is now even more important, “as a way to bring additional domestic supplies from the Rocky Mountains and western Canada.”
But Amy Harwood of Bark says just dropping half of Palomar isn’t good enough. That eastern section is the one that runs past Mt. Hood. “We don’t want to see these corridors leave a permanent scar across our remaining old growth forest in Mt. Hood National Forest, across our wild rivers we spend on for good drinking water as well as quality fishing,” she says.
Harwood says anti-LNG forces will rally at the next annual meeting of NW Natural shareholders in Portland. That’s scheduled for May 27.
At today’s news conference were representatives of Columbia Riverkeeper, Bark, Oregon Citizens Against Pipelines and the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission.
I’ve edited three short videos from today’s event.
Video: The Future of LNG in Oregon
Video: NorthernStar Natural Gas Filing For Bankruptcy
Video: What Killed Bradwood Landing
Related Stories:
Bradwood LNG Developer Files For Bankruptcy
Environmentalists Savor ‘Tremendous Victory’ Over LNG
LNG Opponents Celebrate A Victory Over Bradwood Landing
