Comments on: Oregon’s Bright Green Future

By: Oregon’s green energy “crisis” « Rank14's Blog

Oregon’s green energy “crisis” « Rank14's Blog — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:17:54 +0000

[...] has a golden opportunity here to become a green energy leader in the nation and a blueprint for what to do — and not to do — in terms of making it happen. Our reliance on hydroelectricity is holding us [...]

By: nickengelfried

nickengelfried — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:50:34 +0000

The rational given for building LNG terminals in Oregon is that the Northwest needs to “diversify” our sources of gas, and that we need LNG to meet a growing demand for gas. This reasoning is frankly ludicrous, in part for the reasons rmarg brings up. The proposed Palomar LNG pipeline alone would be designed to carry more gas than the current demand from Oregon and Washington combined; there’s just no way to justify a need for this much gas in the Northwest. It’s much more likely that the LNG companies see their proposed Oregon projects as the easiest way to increase the amount of gas they can deliver to the California market (California has already rejected multiple LNG import terminals off its coast). Or the companies may be planning to build these “import” terminals only to convert them to export terminals once they are built, allowing gas companies to sell North American gas on the global market (where many countries pay much more for their gas than we do in the US). There’s precedent for building an LNG import terminal and quickly converting it to an export hub, so this suggestion isn’t as far-fetched as it might sound. The certainty is that the Northwest (and for that matter the US) doesn’t need LNG, it’s a bad deal for our environment and economy, and the companies proposing LNG projects in Oregon need to pack up and go home!

By: rmarg

rmarg — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:54:47 +0000

With so much talk in the media of “100 years of gas” in the US and Canadian shales, I am surprised there is such a push for LNG terminals. What rationale has been given for building them?

By: Juliana Williams

Juliana Williams — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:57:38 +0000

It’s really important to recognize that Oregon has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and but has a strong emerging clean energy sector. Farming isn’t going to recover the economy, tourism probably won’t, logging and fishing are shrinking industries – these industries do not have the growth potential that clean energy does. So even as there is opposition from folks in different parts of the state, we may as well ask them – do you have a better solution to create long term jobs that doesn’t deplete Oregon’s natural resources?

It’s really exciting that Bill Bradbury is running for Governor and is so supportive. Keep up the good work and good luck!