Coos County BOC to consider the Adoption of Findings for Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline Conditional Land Use Permit tomorrow. We will see if the commissioners have learned anything from the 12″ pipeline ‘fiasco’ as Stufflebean rightly calls it.
Will the commission vote to accept the findings of hearings officer Andrew Stamp and allow the rights of private property owners to be usurped by eminent domain? Will the commission agree to socialize the costs associated with the transmission of foreign LNG to California? Will the commission allow the energy choices of Californians to supersede the property rights of their own constituents?
Coos County ought to wonder what the hurry is about rushing this pipeline through. It is possible Jordan Cove may not be built for years to come.. Jeff Bishop points out in a Coos County Urban Renewal meeting in which Nikki Whitty was present, that Jordan Cove LNG terminal may not be built for decades awaiting a corresponding export terminal in a foreign land.
The way the business model is beginning to shape up, the tenant that enters into an arrangement with Jordan Cove will also be the one developing production that is not yet in existence. So
timing will become a factor. As a result, Jordan Cove will not be built until the supplying facility is built. There has to be a holding strategy for the period of time between when the permitting is awarded and when the facility is actually constructed. Some of the permits have a shelf life and some do not. What is most likely to happen is you will see an interim step where a portion – not all – of the facility will be constructed.
Williams Pipeline and the scattered few locals they hire will make money during the construction phase but during the long waiting period for Jordan Cove to really build something and deliver natural gas to California, the pipeline will sit empty, the property owners most impacted, the oyster beds, the fracked streams and the landslides… well that is the price of ‘progress’. Whose progress, I wonder?
