Portland, Ore. – Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced the availability of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) prepared Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Jordan Cove Energy Project and related Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline. The BLM is a cooperating agency in the FERC planning process because BLM has authority under the Mineral Leasing Act to issue rights-of-way grants for natural gas pipelines crossing federal lands. The USDA Forest Service and Bureau of Reclamation must also concur with the right-of-way. The proposed Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline is a 235-mile, 36-inch-diameter high-pressure natural gas transmission line that would traverse Southwest Oregon. If constructed, the pipeline would have the capacity to move approximately 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. Approximately 41 miles of the project would cross BLM public lands and approximately 30 miles of the project would cross national forest system lands. The proposed Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline would link existing natural gas transmission lines in Malin, Oregon with the Jordan Cove Energy Project, a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Coos Bay, Oregon. Natural gas transported to the Jordan Cove facility would be liquefied and exported. The BLM proposed action would amend the Southwestern Oregon Resource Management Plan and the Northwestern and Coastal Oregon Resource Management Plan to re-allocate these lands to manage them for the purposes of the Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline right-of-way. The BLM’s planning regulations state that any person who participated in the Jordan Cove Energy Project and related Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline process and has an interest that is or may be adversely affected by this plan may protest the BLM’s proposed planning amendments. All protests for this project must be in writing and filed with the BLM Director by December 23, 2019, either as a hard copy or electronically through the BLM’s ePlanning project website at: https://go.usa.gov/xEt7B. To submit a protest electronically, go to the ePlanning project website and follow the protest instructions highlighted at the top of the home page. If submitting a protest in hard copy, it must be mailed to one of the following addresses: Regular Mail: BLM Director (210) Attention: Protest Coordinator, P.O. Box 71383, Washington, D.C. 20024-1383 or Overnight Delivery: BLM Director (210), Attention: Protest Coordinator, 20 M Street SE, Room 2134LM, Washington, D.C. 20003. Before including phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in protests the public should be aware that the entire protest – including personally identifiable information – may be made publicly available at any time. While the public can ask us in their protest to withhold their personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. Additional information about the Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline is available at: https://www.blm.gov/oregon-washington/energy-independence/pacific-connector
