BXE Hails FERC’s Rejection of Jordan Cove LNG Terminal and Pipeline, Calls for More

(Washington, D.C.) March 16, 2016 – Beyond Extreme Energy celebrates FERC’s rejection on March 11 of the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and Pacific Connector pipeline in Oregon. Officially, FERC cited as its reason the applicants’ lack of market demand for the gas, but we know that grassroots concerns and activism are always dismissed by the powers that be. We know that opponents of both the terminal and the pipeline fought hard against the taking of private property by eminent domain for someone else’s private profit, and also opposed the destruction of wildlife habitat and the release of climate-warming methane that this project would have caused.

Two of these opponents flew across the country last September to join BXE’s 18-day fast in front of FERC headquarters. Francis Eatherington, a retired conservation director for Cascadia Wildlands and a landowner in the path of the now-cancelled pipeline, wrote to BXE as soon as the decision was released. “We are stunned! We had prepared for the day when it was approved … but we didn’t have any press releases prepared for this. I want to thank everyone in BXE who helped me get around in D.C. last September and complain to FERC. We did it! We won this round.”

Eatherington was roughly escorted from the September 2015 FERC commissioners’ meeting when she tried to raise her concerns about the project, after having submitted comments and testified at many local hearings, where her concerns were ignored.

Jacob Lebel, a student at Umpqua Community College in Roseberg, Ore., and a plaintiff in Our Children’s Trust lawsuit that specifically targeted the Jordan Cove LNG project as incompatible with youths’ right to inherit a stable planet not destroyed by climate change, wrote, “Great news indeed. Hope this brings hope and courage to all the other communities fighting these projects around the U.S. and the world. Stay strong!”

BXE will continue to oppose what has been until this decision a decades-long, uninterrupted string of approvals for gas pipelines and related infrastructure by FERC.

We also continue to oppose the ongoing construction of Dominion Resources’ LNG export facility in the middle of the southern Maryland town of Lusby. And we support the lawsuit filed against FERC on March 2 by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, charging the agency with corruption and favoritism toward the natural gas industry, which funds its operations.

”We hope this decision is the beginning of a change of heart and policy by FERC commissioners,” said BXE member Ted Glick, “but we’re not holding our breath. The rebellion against FERC is one aimed at radically transforming how energy is produced, transported and consumed in this country. The health of communities and the planet depends on making energy generation and distribution locally sourced, democratically controlled, and greenhouse gas-free.”

For comment, contact Francis Eatherington, 541.643.1309 (francis@eatherington.org) or Ted Glick (BXE), 973.460.1458 (indpol@igc.org)

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