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Energy colony for the Californias.

A reasonable discussion about the value of a LNG port to diversify Oregon's fuel sources could be had if (an only if) the facility were about 1/10 the capacity of the proposed sites, and most of the project was focused on expanding local gas distribution lines to homes and business currently without natural gas. In this rational scenario, LNG would compete with Canadian gas, wind, coal, nuclear, etc on a total life cycle cost including environmental costs. This would be in the state's interest.

The current LNG projects are so far removed from this that they are clearly is designed to take advantage of Oregonians, not help them. There is no focus on expanding Oregon distribution of natural gas so it can substitute for dirtier energy. There is resistance to adding odor markers for safety. There is every effort to speed up the review and block citizen input.

Since California has blocked all proposed LNG terminals, the projects are clearly designed to deliver about 20X as much as Oregon needs, deliver it to trunk pipelines heading south, and make no efforts to distribute instate. Oregon then picks up the environmental cost so foreign gas can be sold to Californians. Groovy.

Why would Oregon politicians like the Guv give it a free pass? Jobs. Nothing like an economic sugar high to give the economy and tax collections a boost, especially in the current downturn. Sadly, enough citizens have to realize why this is a bad deal for us (we get the costs, CA get the benefits) and raise some hell with the Governor's office so Salem can count where the votes are.

posted 5 years, 2 months ago
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