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.”