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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (March 17, 2017)
Street Roots • March 17-23, 2017 News Page 9 Jordan Gove pipeline open houses All open houses will be held from 4 to 8 p.m.: March 21: North Bend - The Mill Casino (3201 Tremont St.) March 22: Canyonville - Seven Feathers Casino (146 Chief Miwaleta Lane) March 23: Medford - Ramada Inn Conference Center (2250 Biddle Road) Friday, March 24: Klamath Falls - Oregon Institute of Technology (3201 Campus Drive, Mount Mazama Room) O F K A W A S A K I K IS E N K A 1S H A LTD . LNG, from page 8 submitted a letter to the State Historic Preservation Officer on Sept 21. The letter outlines concerns that the project could affect former village sites and unearth human remains, as well as damage river resources, as the pipe is routed under the Klamath River and Rogue River, “which since time immemorial have been and continue to be important sources of fish for Tribal members.” “There’s other things we didn’t really talk about in the letter,” said Don Gentry, chairman of The Klamath Tribes. “Maintaining a healthy ecosystem is really something that we see as key. We’re here because the fish were here. We’re here because the system was healthy. I guess that’s just a value we have; that’s inherent in our legends and stories; that’s been kind of passed down to us through the ages. So we see that there’s a need to do things differently than what we’ve had. And we support looking at alternative sources of energy. We’ve actually been looking at solar projects.” Many opponents are incensed by news that the project is returning despite the unprecedented rejection from FERC last year. * “Southern Oregonians have demonstrated, year after year, that we don’t want this pipeline and export terminal,” said Hannah SoM, director of Rogue Climate, one of the local organizations opposed to Jordan Cove LNG. “It’s a never-ending nightmare,” McLoughlin said. “When Veresen can’t meet their time frames, they simply extend those time frames - over and over and over again. The state of Oregon permits this. We can’t compete with their lawyers and their endless checkbook.” And as Veresen travels to Washington, D.C., to curry favor with the White House, Climate change has been a major piece of its opponents in Oregon have begun the controversy around LNG. . > 5 appealing directly to voters. “Southern Oregon has been seeing these climate effects more than other parts of the “Essentially sustainability is illegal,” said state, maybe more so than Portland,” Evans Mary Gedry, of the Coos Commons said. Deadly wildfires in Southern Oregon Protection Council, the group backing the and water shortages in Ashland have forced initiative to ban LNG from the county. “You many people to reckon with the reality of see that with DAPL (Dakota Access climate change, she said. Pipeline): It’s criminal to “Until we saw it at our protect water, but it’s "It's always odd to be door, we didn’t really perfectly legal to poison realize what was oat In the community i t If we’re not gonna be happening. That’s when and have It assumed that able to say no to harmful we realized we need to I'm a right-w ing fossil industrial projects, then get over this fossil fuel I nel gay front Texas who effectively sustainability stuff,” Evans said. “I sort is illegal. So our lores Tramp and works of see it as a showdown ordinance is designed to for a company like Enon« between the oil and gas legalize sustainability in industry and everyone Mobil, That conldn't he Coos County, and to else.” farther from the truth. refuse to recognize But Jordan Cove’s ... We b e llo w in global corporations as persons.” backers say natural gas is warming and are happy to different than other fossil The ordinance would ta lk about it." fuels. also address one of the NHCHASEL H IM R U S O ir “It’s always odd to be most contentious aspects J O R D A N C O V E LN G SP O K ESP ER SO N out in the community of the Jordan Cove and have it assumed that project - the company’s I’m a right-wing fossil use Of eminent domain to fuel guy from Texas who loves Trump and seize land for their pipeline. works for a company like Exxon-Mobil,” The backers of LNG exports are not in Hinrichs said. “That couldn’t be further favor of the proposal. from the truth. And I think it catches people “In short, we’re against the community off guard when they find out that I’m a card- bill of rights,” said Michael Hinrichs, a carrying Democrat, and so is the CEO of spokesperson for Jordan Cove LNG. “Yes, it Jordan Cove, and that we believe in global would impact Jordan Cove, but it impacts warming and are happy to talk about it. The Coos County far beyond that, and I think a difference between Jordan Cove and Exxon majority of residents in Coos County are is not even worth discussing because of how gonna show just that in May. different we are.” “It’s wildly unconstitutional,” Hinrichs Hinrichs argues that gas from Jordan added. “I’m personally of the mind that it Cove will provide a clean-burning fuel that would be struck down in the courts will displace coal in places like India so that they can avoid the kind of air pollution afterward.” that’s plagued China. He said the company also has two customers in Japan that will Methane and climate change L N G carriers like the Energy Frontier will export liquefied natural gas from a Coos Bay term inal i f the Jordan Cove Pacific Connector Pipeline project is completed. avoid increased reliance on coal generation thanks to gas they hope to obtain from ¡HU Jordan Gove. to y c ttbu o d o t o h 4 Burning coal emits more carbon dioxide than natural gas. However, methane, the main component of natural gas, has a much greater global warming potential in the short term. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the warming effect of methane is 86 times as potent as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, and 34 times as strong over a 100-year period. “Even a .tiny, tiny percentage of methane leakage makes its impact much worse than carbon dioxide,” said Ted Gleichman, a policy adviser at the Center for Sustainable Economy. As a result of short-term problems such as heat waves, rising ocean temperatures and loss of snow pack, some scientists are urging public officials to immediately regulate the most potent short-term drivers of climate change - particularly methane and black carbon. But since the fracking boom in the mid- 2000s, policymakers have mainly assumed that natural gas was a clean investment - a position that’s now coming under serious strain. “There is no fossil fuel solution to the fossil fuel crisis,” Gleichman said. “We are actually now at a point where it is cost effective to build the just transition. And it’s really imperative that gas is not seen as a ‘bridge’ to that transition. As Mike Brune said a few years ago, it’s not a bridge; it’s a gangplank. Liberal Democrats, many of whom are labor-oriented, many of whom are corporate-oriented, need to understand that their grassroots constituents have left them behind on these issues, and they cannot support a Trump energy program, which is what LNG has become in Oregon. There will be primary fights if people don’t turn.”
