News release from Stacey McLaughin representing some of the property owners along the proposed Pacific Connector Pipeline Route from South Central Oregon to Coos Bay’s North Spit. Southern Oregon property owners and conservation interests alike celebrated the surprise news announced Friday by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that it was denying plans for what would have been Oregon’s first Liquefied Natural Gas(LNG) terminal and the 232- mile Pacific Connector gas pipeline that would have been 3’ in diameter. In a rare move, FERC said it was rejecting the pipeline project based on the lack of a demonstrated need for LNG and the impacts the project would have had on hundreds of rural landowners who had been threatened with having their properties taken by eminent domain for the pipeline. The Pacific Rim LNG market that the Jordan Cove and Pacific Connector projects were intended to serve have dropped more than 60% in just the last year amid a glut of global LNG supply and decreasing Asian demand. “The people who live and own lands and farms and forest land along the path of their planned Pacific Connector Pipeline are extremely relieved,” said landowner Deb Evans whose 157 acre property in Klamath County would have been crossed by the pipeline. “The idea we would let a private corporation take our land and threaten our families so they could sell U.S. natural gas into the Asian market is still unbelievable to me. We’re thankful FERC did the right thing in denying the project but it’s disappointing our lives have been on hold for years and that we had to wait for the LNG market to completely crash before it was obvious this project was senseless.” Recent energy LNG news headlines have included: “Asian LNG price faces steep fall,” “Asian LNG Prices Expected to Sink as Low as $4 in `Ugly’ Market,” and “LNG Bust Could Last For Years.” FERC’s own data shows recent LNG prices in Japan and South Korea were just $ 6.78 per mmBtu, which is 30% below the $ 11 mmBtu price Jordan Cove’s main investor has publically said it could export LNG. “Legally this is exactly what FERC’s own policies say it was required to do,” said Portland attorney Thane Tienson who along with attorney Brent Foster represented the landowners along the LNG pipeline route in calling on FERC to reject the project based on impacts to landowners and the crash of the Asian LNG market. “The LNG market price has evaporated to the point that there is no economic demand for LNG from the Jordan Cove project and no reason to build a major pipeline to Coos Bay.” “It’s time for the corporations pushing pipelines and LNG in Oregon to give up, go back to Canada, and let us live and work in peace,” adds Stacey McLaughlin another landowner who has been involved in fighting the Pacific Connector Pipeline for years. “It has seemed obvious to us for years that this was not a viable project and it’s hard not to think that the interests that have been driving this are squandering their investors’ money.”
