Time for a new obsession?

Photo: Abandoned condos with a view of Jordan Cove, in Coos Bay, Oregon

A lot has changed since I started following the development of natural gas import terminals two years ago. Nationally, most of the proposals have died, and new reserves of domestic natural gas are being tapped, creating a whole new world of health and environmental nightmares.

Of the three projects that were proposed for Oregon, one is dead, one is hanging by a thread, and one is still more or less proceeding through the regulatory process. The big news this month is that Northwest Natural has withdrawn its application for approval of the Palomar Pipeline. This major pipeline was originally tied to the Bradwood Landing import facility, which went bankrupt last year. There was speculation that Palomar could hook up with Oregon LNG, the second import facility in the Astoria area. That didn’t happen, though, which does leave Oregon LNG in a bit of a pickle. It’s own pipeline only would go only partway across the state, rather than all the way to the north-south transmission network that connects Oregon to California.

Anyway, at this point Oregon LNG can’t even get its pipeline through Clatsop County, the first of five counties the pipe would have to cross after leaving the coastal import station. After a changing of the guard in recent elections, the county board revoked the pipeline’s permit. Of course, the whole thing is tied up in court, and Oregon LNG’s promises to work with the community have dried up into a rancorous tangle of litigation.

That leaves the third project, Jordan Cove LNG, which is also muddling its way through a series of legal hurdles, including the objection of the state of Oregon to federal approval of the project. It is also having trouble with its pipeline — turns out that obtaining the right of eminent domain over the property of 675 landowners, many of them unwilling, creates a bit of a headache. The thing is years behind schedule. Really its only hope is that it takes so long to get approval that the U.S. actually uses up its domestic natural gas in the meantime — we’re estimated to have only enough for next 100 years or so.