The proponents of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline
and export facility proposed for southern Oregon say it’s in
the public interest to extract natural gas through fracking, pipe
it through public and private lands and export it overseas.
Conservation groups and landowners beg to differ. “Incredibly,
they claim they need to increase fracking in the Rocky
Mountain basin,” says Francis Eatherington of Cascadia
Wildlands.
Eatherington is also a landowner whose property could
have the Pacific Connector LNG pipeline running through it
if the project goes through. Public meetings to discuss the
issue are underway in southern Oregon, and public comments
can be submitted on the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) website through Sept. 4. Eatherington
criticizes the project for its negative environmental impacts
on forests, streams, farms and other private property, as well
as for ethical and economic reasons.
The Pacific Connector Pipeline and Jordan Cove LNG
project in Coos Bay were originally proposed as import
facilities for liquefied natural gas, which is moved in pipelines
as gas but converted to liquid for shipping on tankers.
Opponents who predicted the terminal and pipeline would be
“flipped” to become export facilities were proven correct
earlier this year when the Jordan Cove Energy Project filed
paperwork with FERC to change the project to an export
terminal.
According to Eatherington, the company asked FERC to
add “export” to “import” on its Environmental Impact
A CONSERVATIVE
POSITION ON POT
The “war on drugs” — particularly on marijuana — has
already played a big role in Oregon politics this year,
garnering national attention during the Oregon attorney
general race. Despite that attention, Libertarian vice
presidential candidate James P. Gray, former presiding judge
of the Superior Court of Orange County, Calif., said during a
visit to EW that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans
are rolling out any new ideas when it comes to the failed drug
war.
When it comes to weed, Gray doesn’t quite say “legalize
it,” but he does favor regulating the drug like wine, and he
says this as a former federal prosecutor who once held a
record for largest heroin bust. He and Libertarian presidential
candidate Gary Johnson (former New Mexico governor)
have endorsed Oregon’s Measure 80, the Oregon Cannabis
Tax Act, which would regulate marijuana like wine and
generate tax revenue.
Measure 80’s organizers say that the state of Oregon
spends $61.5 million per year in law enforcement, corrections
and judicial expenditures related to marijuana alone, and
regulating marijuana like wine would generate more than
$140 per year in taxes — which could be put into both the
general fund and drug treatment programs, while eliminating
the unsavory elements related to the black market.
Gray says that years of watching his courtroom “churning
out low-level drug offenders” brought him to the conclusion
that the U.S. can do better than prohibition. He says that
seeing a convicted rapist and robber go free with credit for
time served — and a whoop of victory — was a significant
moment for him.
“The reality is that the tougher you get with regard to
nonviolent drug offenses, literally, the softer you get with
regard to prosecution of robbery, rape, murder and everything
6 AUGUST 23, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
else,” Gray says. “We only have so many resources in the
criminal justice system; let’s use them to prosecute people
who are causing harm to others instead of just, maybe,
harming themselves.”
When it comes to other issues of safety, like keeping pot
out of kids’ hands, Gray points to the relative ease in access
that teens have to marijuana compared to beer. The National
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia
University reports that nationally, 12- to 17-year-olds find it
easier to buy marijuana than beer.
Gray began speaking out against marijuana prohibition in
1992 and wrote the book Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed
and What We Can Do About It — A Judicial Indictment of the
War on Drugs to outline his position. He says that he thought
he’d make a persuasive spokesman as a clean-cut, conservative
judge from a conservative county who’s never used illegal
drugs. “I have no reason to do this other than the merits,” he
says.
In addition to creating an unwise allocation of prison
resources, Gray says, a system of prohibition has led to a
decline in civil liberties, most notably under the search and
seizure umbrella, since the day he graduated from law school
in 1971. He says that police have an easier time searching
trunks during traffic stops, for example, and “we’re in no
better shape but we’ve lost civil liberties.”
Even though Gray discusses medicalized treatment of
heroin addiction, needle exchanges and other health measures
for drugs other than marijuana in his book, he says moving
forward by changing policy on all drugs at once isn’t what
he’s advocating. “Let’s start with marijuana,” he says. “Let’s
see how that goes.”
According to Gray, the biggest obstacle to a more
functional national drug policy is politics. “In the political
world, reality is absolutely irrelevant,” he says. “We need to
get away from moralizing and deal with the problem.”
— Shannon Finnell
The International Port of Coos Bay, where the Jordan
Cove export terminal is proposed, is also the proposed home
of a controversial coal export terminal. For more information
on LNG, the public meetings and commenting, go to
cascwild.org and citizensagainstlng.com
— Camilla Mortensen
HOME ON
THE GRANGE
In the historic Mabel Schoolhouse lies an all-but-forgotten
organization of farmers and community, the Mohawk Valley
Community Grange in Marcola. While the history of these
community buildings is long, this grange is taking on a new
role as one of the community’s oldest backbones.
“The spirit of the grange is opening up the community,”
Grangemaster Tom Baratta says. “We try to open the doors
through volunteerism, planning community events,
fundraising and renting out the facility.”
Since the formation of The National Grange of the Order
of Patrons of Husbandry in 1867, the grange has been a focal
point for farmers and rural communities alike. It is one of the
oldest examples of a grassroots, bottom-up organization.
Farmers would come to share techniques, equipment as well
as political and economic interests.
Nowadays the Mohawk Valley Community Grange isn’t
all about raising barns and agrarian issues; it’s about
socializing within the community. “We tend to shy away
from the national grange’s political platform, but we share in
the idea of getting together and pulling together for the better
of the community,” Baratta says.
While most granges have dried up, much like the
population of farmers, the Mohawk Valley Community
Grange remains one of 22 active granges in Lane County.
Aside from taking care of business, this grange hosts weekly
tai chi and yoga classes plus the Mohawk Valley Lions Club’s
Texas hold ’em poker events.
— Mike W. Davis
PHOTO BY SHANNON FINNELL
LNG LOOMS
IN SOUTHERN OREGON
Statement (EIS) and “just modify it.” She says FERC
originally agreed, but opponents “raised a fuss,” arguing that
that the certificate allowing the project to exercise eminent
domain over swathes of private property was given under
false pretences. “They lied,” Eatherington says. FERC
regulators changed their minds and pulled the certificate.
“But we weren’t given much time to revel,” she continues.
Scoping is now under way to see what should be in the new
EIS for the project.
According to its notice of application to export posted in
the Federal Register, Jordan Cove argues that “LNG export
authorization will serve the public interest in multiple ways,”
including job creation and economic and international trade
benefits. However, according to Cascadia Wildlands, a study
by the Department of Energy found that natural gas prices
could rise by up to 54 percent when the U.S. starts competing
for gas on the world market.
And in its application to the Department of Energy, Jordan
Cove writes it would export shale gas from Western Canada
and the Rocky Mountain states. Shale gas is extracted through
the controversial practice of fracking, linked to issues such as
water contamination and earthquakes.
Eatherington says the public comment period is already
plagued by problems. Citizens who try to email their
comments to the FERC project manager Paul Friedman get
an autoreply telling them to upload their comments through
the FERC website, but Eatherington says the website is
clunky and difficult for even the above-average user, let alone
for “Joe Blow sitting on a farm in rural Oregon where high-
speed internet hasn’t come yet.”
Eatherington says that public meetings have not been
publicized in the local papers, clear maps for the pipeline and
project have not been provided, and there’s conflicting
information on how long the public has to give input. One
concern residents in the earthquake- and landslide-prone
pipeline area have is that the pipeline is planned as Class 1, a
rural designation that Eatherington says provides the weakest
protections. Eight people were killed in a September 2010
pipeline explosion in San Bruno, Calif.
Libertarian vice presidential
candidate James P. Gray
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