By ANDREW SELSKY
The Associated Press

SALEM – A Canadian energy company on Wednesday quit plans to build a controversial natural gas pipeline and marine export terminal on the southern Oregon coast after failing to obtain all necessary state permits.

Opponents of the Jordan Cove project, which would have produced the first West Coast liquefied natural gas export terminal in the lower 48 states, rejoiced at the news. The marine export terminal would have been located at Coos Bay, with a 230-mile-long feeder pipeline crossing southern Oregon.

Many landowners, Indian tribes and environmentalists had objected, saying the Pembina Pipeline Corp. project would spoil the environment and contribute to climate change by producing greenhouse gases. In 2019, protesters filled the Oregon State Capitol and occupied the governor’s office until they were hauled away by state police.

“It’s been almost two decades of fighting this project, and it is incredible to hear that all of that work has paid off, and our homes, our waterways, our climate are going to be protected from this project,” said Allie Rosenbluth of Rogue Climate, a southern Oregon-based group advocating for a transition to renewable energy.

Supporters of the project to ship U.S. and Canadian natural gas to Asia said it would create jobs and help the economy. The Coos Bay City Council last year approved dredging part of the bay to increase the width and depth of the shipping channel.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the project in March 2020, while Donald Trump was president. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown threatened to go to court to stop the project if its developers didn’t obtain every permit required from state and local agencies.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality denied a water quality certification for the project, and the Department of State Lands refused to grant another extension to Calgary-based Pembina to file documents in its application for a permit to dredge sediment out of Coos Bay.

Pembina said Wednesday that federal regulators took another look this year, and on Jan. 19, the commission determined Oregon had not waived its certification authority under the Clean Water Act. Furthermore, on Feb. 8, the U.S. Department of Commerce sustained Oregon’s objection under the Coastal Zone Management Act.

Donald Sullivan, manager and associate general counsel of the Jordan Cove Energy Project, told the commission in a notification Wednesday that Pembina has reviewed the prospects for obtaining the permits in the future and “decided not to move forward with the project.”

Sullivan’s notification asked the commission to cancel its permit.

Deb Evans owns land in rural Klamath County that would have been crossed by the pipeline.

“It’s a good day for landowners,” she said.

Evans and her family have been fighting the project for years, fearing the loss of part of their wooded property, where they have a timber mill, to eminent domain.

“We’re super pumped about the news that we got today from our attorneys, and it’s been a long time coming,” she said.

Evans was worried about fire danger increasing as a result of the pipeline, which would have crossed almost a half-mile of their property. She also cited risks to the environment.

The chairman of the Klamath Tribal Council, Don Gentry, said the decision by Pembina to drop the project “is a significant relief for our members who have been so concerned about the impacts.”

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By Matthew Brown

The Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. – The Trump administration is seeking to fast-track environmental reviews of dozens of major energy and infrastructure projects during the COVID-19 pandemic, including oil and gas drilling construction, fuel pipelines, wind farms and highway work in multiple states, according to documents provided to The Associated Press.

The plan to accelerate project approvals comes after President Donald Trump in June ordered the Interior Department and other agencies to scale back environmental reviews under special powers he has during the coronavirus emergency.

More than 60 projects targeted for expedited environmental reviews were detailed in an attachment to a July 15 letter from Assistant Interior Secretary Katherine MacGregor to White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow.

The letter, obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity through a freedom of information lawsuit, does not specify how the review process would be hastened. It says the specified energy, environmental and natural resource projects “are within the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to perform or advance.”

Included on the Interior Department’s list are oil and gas industry proposals such as the 5,000-well Converse gas field in Wyoming, the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas terminal in Oregon, and the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline in Virginia.

Other projects targeted for quick review include highway improvements in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and other states; storm levees and wetlands restoration initiatives in Louisiana; the Lake Powell water pipeline in Utah; wind farms in New Mexico and off the Massachusetts coast; and mining projects in Nevada, Idaho, Colorado and Alaska.

Environmentalist Brett Hartl said the move to expedite major projects represents a “giveaway” to industries that curried favor with Trump.

“Building an LNG (liquefied natural gas) plant is not going to solve the problem that’s happening in the country,” said Hartl, government affairs director with the Center for Biological Diversity. “This is where we’re potentially going to see environmental harm down the road, because they are skipping steps in the process.”

The group sued the government in federal court to force it to release documents related to Trump’s order after the group’s initial request under the Freedom of Information Act was refused.

MacGregor’s letter noted that some projects had been placed on shorter schedules before Trump’s order. Some of those that were on the list were completed recently, such as last month’s approval of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Interior Department officials did not answer questions from the AP on how the environmental reviews are being expedited and whether any rules were being waived. The bid to hasten reviews is in line with the Trump administration’s greater emphasis on reduced regulatory burdens for corporations.

A spokesman for Interior Secretary David Bernhardt stated in an email that the administration was taking steps to improve government decision-making while still making sure environmental consequences are “thoughtfully analyzed.”

“For far too long, critically important infrastructure, energy and other economic development projects have been needlessly paralyzed by federal red tape,” spokesman Conner Swanson said.

The president’s June order directed federal officials to pursue emergency work-arounds of bedrock environmental laws, such as the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, to hasten completion of infrastructure projects to accelerate economic recovery. Trump said the action was necessary because the virus had slowed large segments of society and brought massive unemployment.

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By ANDREW SELKSY
Associated Press

SALEM – A U.S. regulatory agency on Thursday approved a controversial natural gas pipeline and marine export terminal project in Oregon, with one member saying the environmental impacts are acceptable considering the public benefits that will be provided by the project.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington voted 2-1 in favor of the terminal. Commission Chairman Neil Chatterjee said it is now up to Pembina, the Canadian energy company behind the Jordan Cove project, to obtain all the necessary permits.

“This certificate does include a provision which requires Jordan Cove to file documentation that it has received all applicable authorizations for the LNG facility before construction begins,” Chatterjee said.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has already denied a water quality certification for the project.

Chatterjee said Jordan Cove is the first export terminal the commission has certificated on the West Coast in the lower 48 states and it would be capable of liquefying up to 1.04 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day for export to global markets.

The dissenting commissioner, Richard Glick, said the decision violates the requirements of the Natural Gas Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, fails to consider the impact greenhouse gas emissions will have on climate change and would significantly impact 20 threatened and endangered species.

Commissioner Bernard McNamee, who voted in favor of the project, said that while the commission considers local and state interests, it ultimately is required to consider the national interest in making a decision.

“After taking the necessary hard look at the project’s impacts on environmental and socioeconomic resources, the order finds that the project’s environmental impacts are acceptable considering the public benefits that will be provided by the project,” McNamee said.

The marine export terminal would be located at Coos Bay, with a 230-mile (370-kilometer) feeder pipeline crossing southern Oregon.

Last month, Oregon Department of State Lands Director Vicki Walker refused to grant another extension to Pembina to file documents in its application for a permit to dredge sediment out of Coos Bay and to construct the pipeline. Pembina reacted by withdrawing its application for the state permit.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its plans.

Klamath Tribes, a federally recognized group of three Native American tribes, said it was disappointed in the commission’s approval of a project “that would harm the cultural and natural resources that are vital to our people.”

“We will consider our options to protect those resources and we hope that the state of Oregon will stand with us,” tribes Chairman Don Gentry said.

The Trump administration supports energy export projects and in particular Jordan Cove. It has proposed streamlining approval of gas pipelines and other energy projects by limiting states’ certification authorities under the U.S. Clean Water Act.

State Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, recently told demonstrators opposed to Jordan Cove that he expects the battle to go to the courts if the Trump administration tries to ram the project through despite a lack of state permits.

Opponents of the project have demonstrated against it and on Nov. 21 occupied the governor’s office until they were removed by state police.

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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development says a proposed liquefied natural gas export terminal in Coos Bay would have significant adverse effects on the state’s coastal scenic and aesthetic resources, endangered species and critical habitat.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that in to backers of the Jordan Cove Energy Project, agency director Jim Rue said that neither the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission nor the Army Corps of Engineers “can grant a license or permit for this project unless the U.S. Secretary of Commerce overrides this objection on appeal.

The decision on one of the key state permits for the project is a rebuke that comes just before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is scheduled to issue a final environmental analysis on the project, approving or denying its primary federal license. The Trump Administration is a supporter of energy export projects in general, and Jordan Cove in particular.

The proposed natural gas terminal and a 230-mile (370-kilometer) feeder pipeline would permit shipment of natural gas from the United States and Canada to Asia and would be the West Coast’s first liquefied natural gas export terminal.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has already denied a water quality certification for the Jordan Cove natural gas export project proposed by Pembina, the Canadian energy company. Pembina withdrew its application for a different state permit and said that it awaits a final determination by the federal commission. Its three current members were all appointed by Trump.

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The yearslong battle over the Jordan Cove Energy Project is heating up as the federal agency overseeing the proposed $10 billion pipeline and terminal pushes to complete a final environmental review.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is working quickly to finish the final environmental impact statement for the project this fall. Federal agencies and other interested parties have submitted comments – some critical – to inform the impact statement.

FERC intends to issue the notice of availability for the final EIS on Oct. 11, and a final order on Jan. 9, 2020.

Meanwhile, more than 100 local residents and environmental activists last week filled a City Council meeting last week to debate a key request for land use approval needed to dredge in a Coos Bay estuary zone.

For Canadian corporation Pembina, the pipeline would provide a route to market for North America’s booming natural gas fields. The proposal has been the subject of debate for more than a decade – long enough for the planned terminal to go from an import terminal to an export terminal, as the business case shifted to sending liquefied natural gas to Asian markets.

The Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline would stretch approximately 229 miles beginning at an interconnector near Malin, in southeastern Oregon, across land owned by the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, Bureau of Reclamation and private landowners. But the debate is perhaps most pointed in Coos Bay, where massive ships would be loaded with liquefied natural gas for export abroad.

Pembina seeks permission to dredge in the bay, which would require a zoning change. The bay is dredged regularly to provide ocean access for the area’s commercial and recreational fishing fleets, but Pembina wants to dredge in a 3.3-acre estuary that is an important nursery for the South Coast’s crabbing industry.

A consultant hired by Coos Bay, the Lane Council of Governments, has recommended the City Council deny the land use change.

“It is almost impossible to overestimate the importance of this estuary as a nursery for Dungeness crabs,” said Michael Graybill, retired manager for the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.

Graybill said he recently pulled up crab pots that were teeming with hundreds of juvenile crabs. “Dredging the channel margins will kill tens to hundreds of thousands of crabs,” he told the council at the Aug. 27 meeting.

Jody McCaffree, who leads a group called Citizens Against LNG, said the terminal could threaten the area’s thriving recreational fishing industry. The Coos Bay area hosted 31,560 recreational boating trips annually, mostly tied to crabbing and fishing.

“We have a thriving adventure coast here dependent on our natural resources,” she said.

Local residents whose land the pipeline would cross have also been among the opponents.

“Even though we received a decent offer for a settlement on our property, we refused to sell out to Pembina,” said Clarence Adams, a resident of Winston, south of Roseburg. “To us, it’s about quality of life.”

Trade unions have been among the project’s steadfast supporters. Union leaders, port officials and other local boosters point to the economic benefits the project would bring to the coastal community, which has struggled to replace timber jobs.

“This is a project that could be potentially huge for this whole area of Oregon,” Ken Messerle, a former state senator from the Coos Bay area, told the City Council.

According to Pembina, the project would create 6,000 construction jobs at its peak and generate property tax revenues of $60 million a year to southern Oregon counties and $50 million to the state.

The council chose not to make a decision at its Aug. 27 meeting so that it could consider oral and written testimony submitted recently. The council is scheduled to again take up the matter on Jan. 21, 2020.

A lawyer representing Pembina said the public comments were lacking in substance.

“There were a lot of heartfelt statements,” said Steve Pfeiffer, a partner and land use attorney at Perkins Coie in Portland. “There’s definitely a lot of passion. There’s a lot of conclusions. But there’s a limited amount of evidence to back them up.”

Pembina must address a complex tangle of local, state and federal regulatory approvals before any construction can begin on Jordan Cove. While federal regulators have largely welcomed the project, Pembina has encountered obstacles at state and local levels.

By all accounts, FERC is moving quickly to accelerate federal approval. The draft EIS was largely favorable, and Pembina is anticipating approval in January, a spokesman said.

In July, FERC announced it would open a new LNG division, with regulators based in Washington, D.C., and Houston, signaling the federal government is open for such business. There are also signs the Trump administration is pushing for the project. The Guardian reported emails suggested Interior Secretary David Bernhardt had met with a Jordan Cove lobbyist and expressed support for the project. Bernhardt’s former lobbying firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, had lobbied for Jordan Cove, the newspaper reported.

Other federal agencies are involved because it crosses their land. The Bureau of Land Management, in a July 3 letter, stated it would enforce seasonal and daily timing restrictions near marbled murrelet stands and breeding restrictions for the northern spotted owl.

The BLM recommended FERC reconsider its finding of no significant cumulative impact to cultural resources. The agency also urged FERC study the project’s impact on housing in the Coos Bay area.

At the state level, Jordan Cove has encountered roadblocks. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality in May denied the project a needed water quality certificate. Jordan Cove is working with the agency to satisfy requirements in anticipation of reapplying for the water quality certificate this fall, Pembina spokesman Paul Vogel said.

The post Jordan Cove proposal still facing resistance appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Supporters of a proposed natural gas export project on Oregon’s southern coast are claiming they’ve made major headway addressing one of regulators’ biggest concerns as federal regulators take public comments this week.

Pembina Pipeline Corp, the Canadian company that is proposing a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Coos Bay, says it has secured voluntary easement agreements with 82% of the individual landowners along the 229-mile route of the terminal’s proposed feeder pipeline, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Opponents dispute those numbers.

The feeder pipeline for the Jordan Cove export terminal would run from an interstate gas hub in Klamath County to Coos Bay.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission officials are holding four public comment sessions in Southern Oregon this week on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. It will be the last round of public feedback on the statement issued by the commission’s staff in late March.

The commission is expected to render its decision on the project early next year.

If Pembina’s landowner numbers are correct, as the company insists, it marks significant progress from the small percentage that had signed easement agreements when regulators denied the project a license in 2016. That lack of support proved a decisive factor with regulators deciding the previous owner of the project had not demonstrated sufficient public need for the project to overcome the negative impacts on landowners along the pipeline route.

Pembina says they’ve additionally got the “need” question covered. Officials say they’ve secured non-binding commitments from potential customers for more than the proposed throughput capacity of the gas terminal. Whether that eventually translates to solid, binding commitments from Asian customers to buy gas remains a question that likely won’t be answered unless and until the company has its regulatory approvals in hand.

To build the Pacific Connector Pipeline, Pembina needs temporary construction easements the width of a four-lane highway and a permanent 50-foot right of way for the entire pipeline. That impacts 252 private landowners along the route, including 30 timber companies.

Opponents question the validity of Pembina’s numbers and say they’ve been tracking pipeline easements recorded in the counties along the pipeline route. They concede that Pembina has made progress, but according to their calculations, only 61% of the individual landowners have pipeline easements on their land recorded with county authorities.

“Once you sign that easement, they have to record it, or it’s not an easement,” said Stacey McLaughlin, a Myrtle Creek landowner against Jordan Cove. “If Jordan Cove is not recording the information, the easement does not exist, plain and simple.”

Pembina says it has avoided filing all the agreements reached as some landowners want to maintain their privacy and avoid being hassled by project opponents.

“This claim that they are somehow protecting them from their own neighbors, that’s absolutely false,” said Deb Evans, a Klamath county landowner who has helped organize opposition. “We don’t hassle landowners.”

Opponents also accuse the company of using hardball tactics and intimidation to force reluctant landowners to sign easements, and specifically targeting vulnerable and elderly landowners with threats of eminent domain.

Harry Anderson, senior vice president of external affairs and chief legal officer for Pembina, said the company has taken a different approach than its predecessor, Veresen, which Pembina purchased in 2017. He said he understood some landowners’ frustration with the process given the project’s 14-year history and the lack of communication from project backers. He said Pembina tried to get a fresh start last fall by offering landowners a limited-time, $30,000 incentive payment on top of the negotiated price of their easements.

“It’s not a huge amount of money, but we needed to start on a fresh page,” Anderson said.

Anderson declined to discuss individual easement prices, saying they were a function of market prices and compensation for any specific damages or losses construction would cause. But a few of the agreements are rumored to be very large, and company has reportedly bought out some landowners altogether.

The debate over the projects has not always been civil, and regulators set strict conditions on this week’s public hearings. It is conducting one-on-one, three minute interviews in separate rooms instead of public forums. Recording of interviews is not allowed, and the commission warned it could shut the process down if protesters got out of hand.

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State regulators have denied the proposed Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline a needed water quality certificate.

The move announced Monday by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality deals another delay to the 229-mile pipeline project that would connect the Klamath Compressor Station east of Klamath Falls to infrastructure near a seaport terminal at Coos Bay‘s North Spit.

The state agency’s decision was made “without prejudice,” meaning the company backing the pipeline, Pembina Pipeline Corp., based in Canada, could rework its application and try again.

A Southern Oregon environmental group fighting the project characterized the water quality certificate denial as a “really big move in the right direction for Oregon.”

“This is a very serious blow to the Jordan Cove LNG project,” said Allie Rosenbluth, campaigns director for Rogue Climate.

Pembina has been pushing the Jordan Cove project for more than a decade, seeing an opportunity to move liquefied natural gas from the interior of the United States to energy-hungry Asian markets via ocean shipping.

Pembina representatives did not reveal their next move.

“Pembina’s management team is working to better understand this decision and its impacts and will communicate updates when appropriate,” spokeswoman Tasha Cadotte stated in an email message.

Cadotte declined to comment beyond the written statement.

The DEQ decision came in response to a deadline set by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A recent court decision had called into question an extension of the deadline to Sept. 24, so the state agency kept to the original May 7 deadline to preserve Oregon’s right to review the project’s water quality impacts.

Some observers expect Pembina to rework its application and try again to get DEQ approval. It wouldn’t be the first time the Jordan Cove project team has overcome obstacles.

“They’ve had a lot of things denied, but they come back,” said Hugh Link, director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission.

The commission represents the 423 permitted crab boats on the Oregon Coast, and has pushed for safety corridors around any ships that would use Jordan Cove. Crab boats and tankers alike would have to cross the Coos Bay bar at slack high tide.

“We want them to be able to maneuver safely through the Coos Bay bar,” Link said. “When they’re going out or coming in, we don’t want them to have to wait in bad weather.”

The commission has not taken an official position on the project.

Pembina says the $10 billion project would create 6,000 construction jobs at its peak and would generate property tax revenues of $60 million a year to southern Oregon counties and $50 million to the state.

The Port of Coos Bay has backed the project.

“We see it as something that can be really transformative for this area as far as bringing back economic development opportunities,” spokeswoman Margaret Barber said.

Jordan Cove has alarmed environmental groups, who believe the project would become Oregon’s largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions as climate change worsens. The pipeline also threatens coastal rivers and the property rights of some landowners who could face eminent domain, Rosenbluth said.

DEQ’s denial was backed by a 209-page report analyzing the proposal’s effects on water quality. The agency cited concerns about construction of the pipeline and associated roadways affecting water temperature and sediment in streams and wetlands, and the risk of drilling materials entering the Coos Bay estuary.

Pembina proposes to dredge a 22-acre area to connect a slip that would be built to the navigation channel. The 36-inch-diameter pipeline would affect about 4,950 acres during construction and 1,400 acres permanently, according to the agency.

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More than a decade after the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas project was first proposed, it’s still in limbo.

The Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL) has received a for the Coos Bay project. The application is for three main elements: a liquefied natural gas (LNG) slip and access channel, an LNG terminal with a capacity of 320,000 cubic meters and a 36-inch-diameter natural gas pipeline running 229 miles from Coos Bay to Malin in Southern Oregon. The DSL previously rejected a 2017 application based on project purpose and need, impacts to recreation in the bay, fill dimensions and volumes, and wetland mitigation.

Meanwhile, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is reviewing the project team’s latest application for federal approval. That was submitted in September 2017.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality also is reviewing the project proposal.

DSL has until Dec. 6 to review the most recent removal-fill permit application for completeness. If deemed complete, a 60-day public review and comment period will begin. DSL has tentatively scheduled five public hearings for this purpose:

• Jan. 7 from 5:30-8 p.m. at Klamath Falls Community College, 7390 South Sixth St. in Klamath Falls,
• Jan. 8, in Jackson County, at a time and location TBA,
• Jan. 9, from 5:30-8 p.m. at Seven Feathers Casino, 146 Chief Miwaleta Lane in Canyonville,
• Jan. 10, from 5:30-8 p.m. at the Mill Casino, 3201 Tremont Ave. in North Bend, and
• Jan. 15, from 5:30-8 p.m. at the Department of State Lands, Land Board Room, 775 Summer St. N.E. in Salem.

Calgary, Alberta-based Pembina Pipeline is the primary investor. The company still anticipates investing somewhere between $8 billion and $10 billion in the project, which was initially proposed for a 240-acre Coos Bay site in 2007.

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The consortium pushing a revamped plan to build a massive natural gas port in Coos Bay says the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president had no impact whatsoever on its decision to reapply for permits.

Despite reports last year heralding the death of the $7.5 billion , backers are currently preparing another application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — a third try — and this one they say will have a much stronger chance of success.

And the ascension of a fervently pro-deregulation Republican to the nation’s highest office had nothing to do with it, according to Michael Hinrichs, spokesman for Calgary-based Veresen, the project’s lead investor.

“Like a lot of the nation, many on our team were surprised by the outcome,” Hinrichs said. “We certainly didn’t plan for one administration or the other. The decision to reapply occurred pretty much immediately when we realized our last appeal was denied.”

The project was first considered by FERC in 2007. In that iteration it would have served as an import facility that received gas from the Middle East and Russia. Despite winning approval, changes in the global market for fossil fuels altered the picture for developers, who abandoned their plan to import.

The most recent application, this time for an export facility at the same location, was rejected by FERC last year. It would have provided more than 8 billion cubic feet of LNG per day. But Obama-era regulators argued that the project application failed to demonstrate existing commercial demand. The plan was also opposed by environmentalists and many landowners along the 235-mile connector route through Oregon.

Hinrichs said the latest iteration includes more than 50 route changes to accommodate property owners. And two Japanese buyers interested in the vast natural gas deposits of the U.S. West are now involved. A 420-megawatt power plant has also been cut from the plan.

But the FERC application is just the first of around 30 state and federal permits needed for the project to move forward.

Another apparent advantage for supporters is Jordan Cove appears to have a . Trump’s administration may have tipped its hand when economic adviser to the president Gary Cohn said at a policy talk that it’s looking to expand fossil fuel extraction in the U.S. West.

“The first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to permit an LNG export facility in the Northwest,” Cohn said at the time, according to the Washington Post.

In response, Oregon’s two senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, wrote letters urging the president to stay out it. (Neither has formally taken a side for or against the project.)

Longtime project opponent Robyn Jenssen, executive director of Rogue Riverkeeper, said the opposition coalition is still engaged and keeping a close eye on the project.

“Under the new administration, there will probably be more support, but I would honestly say that the campaign against it has grown and that it’s bigger and better than ever,” she said. “Things actually haven’t changed. It’s actually fired up this side even more.”

Rogue Riverkeeper is concerned the project will negatively affect waterways in the upper Rogue Basin. But Jenssen said it’s difficult to know where to focus opposition with so much hinging on handshake agreements among the owners and their partners.

“It’s a lot of talk until we see some documents,” she said.

Another boost for project supporters came last month when Coos County voters rejected a ballot measure that would have banned the project. Emboldened by the chance of success after 15 years, Hinrichs said owners are ready to file “pretty much” every document again.

“By the time Jordan Cove moves fully through this process, we think that it’s going to be one of the most thoroughly vetted projects in the nation,” he said. “We know that there are going to be legal challenges – Oregon has strict environmental laws. But I think we’ll meet all those and the federal laws, and we’re more than willing to do it because we know that our project is sound.”

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Two weeks after their project looked dead in the water, investors behind the Jordan Cove Energy Project announced they’d found an Asian buyer and planned to appeal an unfavorable regulatory ruling.

The announcement by Veresen Inc. of a deal with a consortium of Japanese investors came 11 days after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied applications to build and operate a massive liquefied natural gas export terminal and pipeline project that would have affected more than 600 Oregon private property owners and radically altered the tiny coastal town of Coos Bay.

FERC regulators reasoned that Calgary-based Veresen and its partner, Williams Companies, hadn’t shown that the project’s public benefits would outweigh the . The project would have enabled transfer of liquefied natural gas from North America to Asia, but the global market for fossil fuels is much different today than when the project was first proposed more than a decade ago.

Veresen’s deal with JERA, a joint venture of Japanese utilities, would cover about a quarter of the terminal’s capacity of natural gas, which is expected to be about 1 billion cubic feet per day, according to a Veresen press release.

“We are pleased to have JERA as our first customer and look forward to deepening our relationship with them as we continue to progress Jordan Cove LNG,” the statement reads.

Opponents praised FERC’s denial of the project; however, project supporters like trade unions and Associated General Contractors’ Oregon-Columbia chapter have insisted that the team keep fighting. Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline is still promoting informational workshops to discuss with citizens how it acquires land rights.

Mike Salsgiver, executive director of AGC‘s Oregon-Columbia chapter, said it will write a letter to FERC supporting an appeal.

“There’s one customer lined up that we know of, and obviously, if the project’s approved there will be more,” he said.

Supporters argue that the project would be the largest private project ever in Oregon, and a long-overdue boost to economically-depressed Southern Oregon. Hundreds of union workers have crowded into public hearings to express their support.

“It would be absolutely marvelous news for the southwest coast,” Salsgiver said.

The $7.6 billion project would involve three major aspects – a terminal, including an access channel from the existing Coos Bay navigation channel and a marine slip with berths capable of accommodating a large LNG vessel; a 420-megawatt power plant; and a 232-mile pipeline from Coos Bay to Malin.

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