Legislators back off LNG while activists keep heat on

Obama administration applies scrutiny to gas projects

By Christian Gaston

The Forest Grove News-Times, Aug 26, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

Chase Allgood / News-Times

Even as state leaders quiet their opposition to installing liquefied natural gas terminals in Oregon, citizen activists are keeping the topic alive, whether by raising thousands of dollars for the cause at vineyard auctions, or bringing the protest to the parking lot of the Ballad Towne Shopping Center.

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Last Saturday, 250 people packed into Montinore Vineyards, just south of Forest Grove. to sip wine, mingle with former Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury and raise money for the fight against liquefied natural gas.

A lot of money.

Allen Neuringer said the event raised more than $16,000, most of it through a silent auction of local art and goodies.

Neuringer, a retired Reed College professor who lives in Gales Creek, has been active in the effort to stop a trio of proposed LNG terminals in Oregon that would import super-cool gas from overseas.

Over the past four years, the fight’s burbled up from a smattering of local concerned citizens, into a real movement, pushing elected officials to take sides.

But in the most recent legislative session, neither the companies hoping to build LNG terminals in Oregon, nor the activists opposed to the LNG developments came out ahead.

The Oregon House supported a bill that activists said was a fast-track for LNG developers (but the Senate quashed it). At the same time, the Senate’s efforts to push through a bill that the activists supported fizzled in the house.

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