Opponents of the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal in Coos Bay rallied outside a public meeting in Medford Thursday.
Jes Burns/OPB
MEDFORD, Ore. - People stood six deep in the back of a Medford high school meeting room Thursday night for a hearing on a liquefied natural gas export terminal proposed for the Oregon Coast. It was the fourth in a series of community meetings held across Southern Oregon.
Thursday’s meeting got off to an inauspicious start, when a representative from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) told the packed-in crowd that they had contracted for a much larger room than they were given. Amid grumblings from the audience, he asked people to stand out in the hall or leave the room once they testified.
Opponents of the Jordan Cove LNG terminal and Pacific Connector Pipeline blasted the draft environmental impact statement issued by FERC, which found the Coos Bay project would not cause significant harm.
The Coos Bay facility would liquefy natural gas piped in from Canada and the Rocky Mountains for export to Asia. It would require construction of a connector pipeline running through Jackson, Douglas, Klamath and Coos counties in Southern Oregon.
Many raised concerns that the environmental findings failed to adequately account for the project’s impacts on climate change. They also faulted FERC for not examining the environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing or fracking -- pumping sand, oil and chemicals into the ground to release and extract natural gas.
“Without it, no intelligent conversations can be had,” said Ashland resident Diana O’Farrell
Bob Barker retired to the property where the Canadian company Veresen intends to run the 36-inch natural gas pipeline under the Rogue River. If the project is approved, Barker said his land will be taken by the developers through eminent domain.
“You know our property will never be the same. All the trees will be cut down in that two acre area and they won’t grow back in our lifetime,” he said. “It’s a horrible situation.”
Jordan Cove opponents, who outnumbered supporters at least three to one, stressed Oregon is accepting all of the risk with little of the benefit. Rural residents said if the pipeline exploded in the summer, catastrophic wildfire could result.
Local union members who testified, including Gary Jackson, said the economic benefit that would come to Southern Oregon is worth it.
“This part of Oregon down here has been depressed for a lot of years. This is a way to get us out of it,” he said.
Jackson said the project would generate construction jobs immediately and spur economic development in the region for years to come.
Overall, nearly 90 people signed up to speak, although a relatively small number provided testimony specific to the environmental impact statement itself.
Public hearings on the draft EIS will continue through the end of the week. FERC will be in Klamath Falls on Friday and in Malin, Ore. on Saturday. In addition, officials say they would request a second hearing in Medford to try to make up for the problem with the room.
Public comment on the Jordan Cove draft EIS will be taken through February 13, 2015.