Wednesday, December 14, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
The Belfry will operate No reconsideration of pipeline
under OLCC suspension
By Gillian Flaccus
Associated Press
The popular community
venue The Belfry will not
be able to serve alcohol for
55 days starting December
20, under a settlement agree-
ment with the Oregon Liquor
Control Commission.
The settlement resolved
two violations regarding a
lapse in the Sisters venue’s
liquor liability insurance
from November 2014 to
February 2016. According
to OLCC spokeswoman
Christie Scott, that is a cate-
gory-one violation that could
have resulted in revocation
of The Belfry’s license. A
second violation involved a
false representation on paper-
work that indicated that The
Belfry had insurance when it
did not.
Angeline Rhett, owner
of The Belfry, told The
Nugget that the insurance on
her other business renewed
automatically and she had
assumed that the same was
the case for the liquor liabil-
ity at The Belfry. She said
she thought she did have
insurance when she pro-
vided incorrect information
to OLCC. She also said that
she had not been informed
by her insurance company
of the lapse, and neither had
OLCC.
The suspension could
have been appealed, but
Rhett chose to accept it
and move forward. Rhett
emphasized that she takes
full responsibility for the
lapse.
“Yes, there are extenu-
ating circumstances, but in
the end it’s my business and
I accept responsibility for
dropping the ball,” she said.
Scott noted that OLCC
did not shut the venue down,
and Rhett said there are still
events set for the period of
suspension.
“We have a yoga retreat,
we have maybe a couple of
workshops and couple of
movies,” she said. “We’re
going to be doing some work
inside the building.”
Desserts and coffee will
be available.
“We just can’t serve alco-
hol,” Rhett said. “I am sin-
cerely sorry if it has nega-
tively impacted anyone and
will work even harder to
continue to keep The Belfry
up and running for all of our
community events.”
PORTLAND (AP) —
Federal regulators on Friday
refused to reconsider a 230-
mile liquefied natural gas
pipeline that would have
terminated in the southern
Oregon coastal town of Coos
Bay, handing a serious set-
back to a multi-billion proj-
ect to deliver the gas to mar-
kets in Asia.
In a 15-page opinion, the
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission denied requests
from the Jordan Cove
Energy Project, the Pacific
Gas Connector Pipeline, the
State of Wyoming and the
Wyoming Pipeline Authority
to reopen the case and reaf-
firmed the agency’s decision
from earlier this year.
In that March 11 ruling,
the agency found there was
little evidence to support the
need for a pipeline and not
enough public benefit from
the project, which has been
tied up in a legal fight for
several years.
Supporters of the pipe-
line, however, challenged
the decision in an appeal and
also moved to swing public
opinion to their side.
Wyoming, which was
among those challenging that
ruling, argued that FERC
should have considered the
economic benefit from the
pipeline to its residents from
increased natural gas produc-
tion, royalties and taxes.
Colorado sent repre-
sentatives to Oregon to
lobby for the pipeline this
fall, and Colorado Gov.
John Hickenlooper asked
federal regulators to take
another look at the $7 bil-
lion project, which would
allow it to ship natural
gas to markets in Japan.
TV advertisements tout-
ing the pipeline’s potential
economic benefits aired in
Oregon during last summer’s
Olympic Games.
Veresen Inc., the Calgary,
Alberta-based company, said
in a statement Friday that
it would consider another
appeal or might submit a new
application to FERC.
“Veresen remains com-
mitted to this important
energy infrastructure proj-
ect,” said Don Althoff,
Verensen’s president and
CEO. “We are very disap-
pointed by FERC’s decision,
especially in light of the sig-
nificant progress that has
been made in demonstrat-
ing market support for the
11
project and the strong show-
ing of public support for the
project.”
The pipeline route would
have stretched from the
farming town of Malin east
of the Cascade Mountains,
just north of the California
border, to Coos Bay on the
southern Oregon coast. The
route, which was opposed by
private landowners and envi-
ronmentalists, would have
crossed rivers, mountain
ranges and a mix of private
and public lands.
Regulators said in the rul-
ing that the pipeline would
affect nearly 160 miles of
privately owned lands and
about 630 landowners.
Environmental groups
applauded the decision, say-
ing the pipeline would have
hurt Oregon to benefit out-
of-state corporate interests.
“Our state should be
focused on creating good-
paying jobs in improving
energy efficiency and the
expanding clean energy
industry, such as solar
power, not on new fossil
fuel projects that hurt us all,”
said Hannah Sohl, director
of Rogue Climate, one of the
organizations that opposed
the liquefied natural gas
project.