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Mobile AlertPublic is engaged with LNG issue
http://www.bammm.org/LNG_Gas/Public_is_engaged_issue.htm
| Date: | Fri, 02 Feb 2007 10:42:24 -0800 |
| From: | "JODY MCCAFFREE" <mccaffrees@verizon.net> View
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| Subject: | Daily Astorian LNG poll articles Public is engaged with LNG issue http://www.bammm.org/LNG_Gas/Public_is_engaged_issue.htm |
| To: | Undisclosed-Recipient@, |
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1/30/2007
11:02:00 AM
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Public
is engaged with LNG issue
Feds wrote states out of the process, but we should weigh the pros and cons President Bush and Congress don't want to know a lot of things. They have directed federal agencies not to gather certain information when it contradicts their world view. In a nutshell, it has been a bad season for science and a good season for ignorance. One of the things the White House and Congress don't want to hear is public opinion on the matter of liquefied natural gas terminals. The last Congress turned down an amendment that would have given the states a place in the deliberations over LNG terminals. Congress declared that LNG siting is a federal decision, period. As a consequence, Clatsop County has had to elbow its way into the process. Thanks to the tenacity of county leaders, there will be a planning review of Northern Star's proposed LNG terminal at Bradwood. A poll published Monday in The Daily Astorian indicates the Columbia-Pacific region is deeply divided over that prospective terminal. The survey clearly reveals that a considerable number of voices are not being heard in the LNG discussion. The companies, especially Northern Star, are busy making announcements about their progress, our Clatsop County government is getting involved in land-use issues, and there is a large, vocal body of opposition, whose members write letters to the newspaper and attend protest meetings. But the poll shows that 42 percent of people living on the North Coast support the LNG plant, either "strongly" or "somewhat." That statistic alone calls for a more measured debate which properly weighs the pros and cons. The county's hearing process can be a forum for that discussion. The polling result is not, in itself, a conclusion. It is only where public opinion was during a certain week. We took this poll for a simple reason - to learn what the public thinks of the Bradwood LNG proposal. One aspect of this poll should be interesting to federal policy makers. In Clatsop County there is a very high awareness of the Bradwood proposal. When coupled with Clatsop County government's aggressive pursuit of information, the feds may see a region that is highly engaged with this process, even if Congress has written the states out of the process.
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