Wyden: Feds haven’t shown need for liquid natural gas terminals in Oregon

Democratic senator finds a lot of friendly faces at Thursday town hall meeting in Beaverton marked by Bush-bashing

By Christian Gaston

The Forest Grove News-Times, Feb 21, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (16 Reader comments)

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In a Beaverton town hall dominated by frustration with the Bush administration, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said he’ll oppose development of liquefied natural gas terminals in Oregon until federal regulators prove there’s a need.

“This question about LNG and terminals reminds me of Dodge City before the marshal showed up,” Wyden quipped. “You’ve got all these applications proposing vastly more gas than anybody has said can be consumed and nobody has addressed the environmental impact.”

Three companies are working with federal regulators to build liquid natural gas terminals near Astoria and Coos Bay. The proposals would send the pipelines from two of the projects through western Washington County and northern Yamhill County.

The terminals have drawn crowds of critics at rallies from Astoria to Salem.

Last week Gov. Ted Kulongoski wrote a sharply worded letter to federal energy officials, saying they haven’t made a convincing case that other, more environmentally sensitive, alternatives to LNG weren’t available.

Wyden said he expected the Thursday town hall to have a larger showing from LNG opponents (only about six showed up), but he got an earful from citizens concerned about a range of Bush administration policies.

“In years past I could put one bumper sticker on my car and say what I think about things,” Anita Pace, of Beaverton, said, “now you need a whole fleet.”

Wyden didn’t miss a beat.

“It’s been a good year for the bumper sticker business,” he fired back.

But while Bush was the major target of the predominately Democratic voices in the packed room, Wyden got major cheers from the hopeful crowd when he suggested the end is near.

“I’ll tell you in 2009 we’re going to clean house in this country,” he said.

Until then, Wyden said he wasn’t hopeful that a bill backed by Sens. Joseph Lieberman and John Warner that would cap greenhouse gas emissions would pass.

But he said he did think that the Mount Hood Wilderness Act that he and fellow Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, Republican, introduced in 2007 would pass this year.

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