Here is what I got out of the Tuesday, March 27th, Jordan Cove Open House and Site tour. The new LNG Export application will be for the Jordan Cove LNG facility and South Dunes Power Plant “only” and does not include the Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline. The pipeline according to FERC rep Paul Friedman already has a FERC Certificate under the Import terminal and despite its legal challenge, Jordan Cove is not withdrawing that application and permit authorization. Bizarre actually that they will be having two separate applications going on at the same time for the same project but not for the same purpose and need. How in the world will this ever pass NEPA? Obviously they don’t want to link the Pacific Connector with the Export terminal due to having to deal with purpose and need and eminent domain issues.
In addition, they will be using the dredging spoils from the marine slip dock to raise the property another 20 feet higher. The entire facility will be built on twenty feet of fill. Braddock also informed us that sand does not liquefy in the event of an earthquake. I guess fill doesn’t either?? Surreal… that is all I can say about that one.
According to Bob Braddock the marine slip is not big enough to house two ships and Jordan Cove has to control the entire slip. We already know this due to the Coast Guard ruling and issues with the Jordan Cove facility hazard exclusion zones, but I don’t know if the Port really has a clue after looking at the Tuesday, March 26th, World headline story and rendition drawing:
Interesting also is the fact that they are saying the gas for this Jordan Cove export terminal would come from Canada…. Could they get around a ruling from the U.S. DOE due to this?
The Open House that occurred after the site tour was clearly lacking concrete information about the Jordan Cove Export project. Most of the tables had information about the consultants but not a lot of detailed information about the LNG project. I think it was rather clear that they are still trying to work out a lot of the details yet.
Here below is the World’s take on the Jordan Cove Site Tour and Open House. Holly’s coat makes some press and what a fine press coat it is by the way! I hope I did it justice.
“LNG site tour becomes ‘what if’ session”
Protesters pepper Jordan Cove exec with questions at FERC visit
KCBY covered the Jordan Cove Open House and also the Port meeting on Monday, March 26th, but despite repeated request has not put their story about the Port meeting on-line. They did put their stories about the Jordan Cove Open House on-line, however.
Sandy Messerle lets everyone know in the 2nd KCBY news reel below how much investors may lose in the soon to be Jordan Cove LNG “Whoops II” fiasco. The Jordan Cove LNG project is a mirror in so many ways to the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS), or Whoops” as it was called, nuclear power plant projects in the late 70’s and early 80’s. After spending billions of borrowed dollars, WPPSS defaulted in 1982 and reneged on payments of $2.25 billion in bonds issued to finance two nuclear power plants. Construction was well along, and plant number 3 at Satsop was about 85% complete, with the reactor in place when the default occurred. Cooling towers, 496 feet tall, never saw a breath of steam, and demolition costs are estimated to be in the hundreds of millions. [ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/21/us/21nuke.html – If this story doesn’t sound just like Coos Bay I don’t know what does.] The WPPSS default remains the largest municipal bond default in the history of the United States and goes to show that pouring more money into a bad project does not create jobs in the end or mean that the project will be successful. It just creates more boondoggles.
KCBY –
“LNG Job Creation”
“Jordan Cove answers questions”
http://www.kcby.com/news/local/Jordan-Cove-answers-questions-144719405.html
I think it is obvious that the local press is trying very hard to paint opposition to the Jordan Cove Project as just environmentalist. Nothing could be further from the truth, however!
Lucky for citizens, Channel 14 taped the entire March 26th Port meeting which you can view at this link:
Port of Coos Bay Board Meeting – View Complete Video of Meeting Here – 7 pm Monday, March 26, 2012:
Public comment starts over an hour into the Port meeting and was pretty good. Jonathan talked about the Port’s doo doo diligence being done daily and the doo doo being quite deep. It was choice….. Jonathan was at 1:17:10, Curt at 1:30:50 and Jody at 1:34:10. Everyone did excellent.
Last but not least, I now have the www.citizensagainstlng.com site back up and running. Several people have expressed an interest in helping to keep the site up to date. It is not finished being totally put together yet but felt I had to get something up before the Jordan Cove Open House. All the stuff everyone is wanting is in the works so stay tuned. A big ‘Thank You’ to Mary for all her help on this.
Thank the sanity gods for Jody! She got it right. I keep preaching that this project will be bought by China and the gas source might be as well. Rumor has it that there is a $22 billion Chinese hedge fund trolling for projects right now. They spend less money for the gas, and we get the risk from earthquake/tsunami. In the meantime, the Port keeps shining everyone on about getting a “free” slip dock, while I heard Bob Braddock say they are on their own for any docks needed next to Jordan Cove. It just gets more curious. The Jordan folks are venture capitalists who never intended to own this. They sold half to Veresen in Canada and whoever gets the gas will buy their half. Terminals and pipes get old and the earthquake/tsunami threat is all we will get out of this sketchy deal. We get the risk and they get the money!
I only mention this comparison to show how hard, real changes to our society and protecting the unheard voices (children)are. Justice for Treyvon Martin seems unattainable. The system is afraid to make an arrest, even with such an egregious violation of his freedom to walk alone in a gated neighborhood. I know it seems off subject, but when the system protects itself from a clear example of common sense and right or wrong, how can we expect the system to correct its path of representing only the rich and politically powerful. These plans for exporting LNG and coal, will never be stopped locally by any vote our little community might make in choosing replacement county commissioners. However we can make it easier for the system to limp along with this agenda set for us by big oil/gas, by electing representatives pre-approved by the bay area chamber of commerce and SCDC. We can just leave the needed changes for future generations to fix. We can all just go silent locally and wait for someone else to give a damn. How many more straws can the camel carry? I think we’re about to find out.
Did anyone see Mark Rufffalo on the Colbert show talking about the myths and mis-information on fracking for gas? There’s not 100 years of fracking gas available, just 20 years at best, and then we will all have to buy our distilled water from the oil company’s because they will have poisoned the ground water with their undisclosed chemicals.When will Joe public connect the dots? Those of you wanting to attack this opinion, should have at it.
Oh my Mr. Braddock, may those of us locally who experienced the Alaska, Northridge, or Loma Prieta earthquakes assure you that there will be liquifaction. You can not escape the well documented effects of the Kobe earthquake. Perhaps you learned this no liquifaction from your same expert who did not understand autoignition and said a lit cigarette could not ignite LNG returning to its natural state. Probably good reasons why there are signs at LNG factories that state – no smoking. The cigarette being ihnhaled exceeds the autoignition point of natural gas. Mrs. Hamner, now of the Port, then of the daily bird cage liner, called those remarks and experioence “jollity”. When will you stop lying to the people? Are you related to “Al” who contributes here occasionally? It appears that you have intentionally ignored the tsunami that will be here – wherther 100 feet or 40 feet. Ever watch the sand castles erode on the beach at high tide? And, the tsunami will ebb and flow several times. Thanks to the people who have endured being called CAVE people and knuckledraggers, or those who authored the Jordan Cove Retort, at least the local peiople are now educated and can make informed decisions, something that may be your greatest fear.