Property
owners promise to fight pipeline
ADAM
PEARSON, apearson@newsreview.info
December 12, 2006
Print
Email 
Subscribe
CANYONVILLE — Indignation is the reaction
hundreds of Oregonians have for a proposal to build a natural gas pipeline
across the state, with a large contingent of it right here.
On Sunday, about 75 people gathered at the Canyonville Youth Center to
discuss options and plans for stopping the proposed Pacific Connector, a
3-foot diameter pipeline, 223-miles long, which could transmit 1 billion
cubic feet of natural gas per day from Coos Bay to Malin 20 miles east of
Klamath Falls.
Citing safety concerns, environmental concerns, non-consideration for
alternative-energy options and detrimental effects to public and private
property — the pipeline requires up to 100-foot wide easements in some
cases — local residents expressed their dismay.
Meeting organizer Diane Phillips of Azalea said it’s time citizens put
pressure on their state- and federal-level elected officials to put a stop
to the proposal.
“We’re going to turn the heat up,” she said.
Besides urging elected officials, Phillips said participants are writing
letters and are developing a legal defense strategy to help reinstate
local and state authority over such projects that was trumped by the 2005
Energy Act.
“I still feel there’s a lot that can be done,” she said.
The pipeline would be jointly owned by the Williams Pacific Connector Gas
Operator LLC, Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. and Fort Chicago
Energy Partners LP.
Williams is expected to make a formal application to the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission for the pipeline early next year.
Construction for the pipeline is estimated to be around $800 million. It
would transport natural gas from the proposed Jordan Cove Terminal in Coos
Bay — which would convert liquefied natural gas back to its gaseous
state — across Coos County, enter Douglas
County west of Camas Valley, go between Winston and Myrtle Creek,
and then turn southeast near Days Creek before making its way to the California
border.
The LNG terminal is one of five proposed in Oregon,
with four others proposed along the lower Columbia River.
Opponents of the Pacific Connector say its construction in Oregon
is unjustified since it would mainly be built to supply California’s
energy needs.
“I view this as a pipeline that has no benefits for Southern Oregon and
not even California,”
said David Lohman, an attorney who attended an anti-Pacific Connector
meeting in Medford on Saturday.
Lohman said it’s time to consider clean energy for California
in the future rather than fossil fuels.
If built, construction of the pipeline is expected to begin in summer 2009
and be completed in 2010.
FERC and Williams have each held open houses in the past to answer
questions about the pipeline. A draft environmental statement for the
pipeline is expected to be released by FERC next year.
For more information about the pipeline or FERC, go to www.williams.com
or www.ferc.gov.
• You can reach reporter Adam Pearson at 957-4213 or by e-mail at apearson@newsreview.info.
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.15.18/585 - Release Date: 12/13/2006
View
Contact Details 
Add
Mobile Alert
