By John MacGregor, PhD

An open Letter to Mayors, City and County Council Members, Chambers of Commerce, and Economic Booster Groups in Oregon: YOU ARE BEING SOLD A BILL OF GOODS BY OUTSIDERS.

I see your letters to our senators and representatives urging them to support the proposed Jordan Cove LNG Project in Coos Bay and help speed up the ”cumbersome” federal approval process. Whether or not this effort succeeds, you are unknowingly aiding and abetting the applicant, Veresen, in violating federal law. This foreign company has been violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for seven years by attempting to fast-track the project through the Coos County permitting process prior to issuance of the EIS by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

If your efforts do succeed, here is what you will accomplish:

*Several hundred temporary jobs for a few years, most of them performed by transients and only a few by local residents

*increased disturbance of the peace, threats to personal safety, pollution, congestion, and traffic problems brought to the community by these outsiders

*destruction of much of our marine habitat, including disturbance of oyster fisheries, major impediments to marine navigation, pleasure boating, and other recreational enjoyment of our natural environment

*significant increases in the price of natural gas as our domestic gas is fed into the world economy and the domestic supply is reduced

*substantial pollution and disturbance of many natural areas of the United States caused by fracking and other destructive methods of extraction

*arbitrary taking of private lands, without recourse. for routing a 240 mile pipeline to export our precious resources, In many cases altering the present topography to the point of rendering it useless for gainful purposes,

*potential danger to yourselves and your constituents all along the route of that pipeline from possible explosion, to say nothing of the danger to residents of Coos Bay and North Bend from a probable tanker explosion or inevitable earthquake-induced tsunami

*with the volatility of the world energy markets, the possible collapse of demand in a few years, the shutting down of Jordan Cove, and the community left to deal with the mess and pick up the pieces (see The Job Messiahs by Coos Bay author Wim DeFriend for numerous other examples of such boondoggles.)

*in any case, major economic windfalls to a group of outside investors who could care less about our coastal communities and who will be laughing all the way to the bank

THINK ABOUT IT

John MacGregor, Ph.D.                                                                                                                                                                                 .

Asst. Professor of Sociology 1965 -1971               Organizer, “Can Man Survive,” environmental concerns                                                                                                    University of Oregon                                                 class, largest enrollment in U of O history, spring 1970.

Asst. Professor of Sociology 1971 – 1972                 Co-founder, BRING (Begin Recycling in New Groups),

Oregon State University                                                first recycling organization in Oregon, 1970

 

Assoc. Professor of Sociology 1972 – 1976

Western Washington University

 

Currently a resident of Tucson, Arizona, but a frequent visitor to Oregon, and in daily contact with members of Citizens Against LNG, North Bend/ Coos Bay, Oregon.