In Newport, Ore., large green receptacles filled with Liquefied Natural Gas provide a stark contrast to the nearby sandy beaches, and yet, the two have existed in harmony for 50 years. However, Cascade Climate Network, a group of youth climate advocates, worries House Bill 3058 would make LNG more intrusive for Oregonians than it has ever been in the past.
Rep. Brad Witt said HB 3058 would change the requirements for LNG corporations in applying for fill-removal permits. Companies are required by law to have the approval of each citizen whose land they disrupt before they apply to Oregon Department of Land Services to install underground pipes that carry LNG. Under the bill, companies would not be required to get the approval of every resident with affected property before they apply for a fill-removal permit.
However, the LNG companies would still be required to get all of the signatures to be approved for the permit.
“This law is very simple. It doesn’t change a whole lot,” said Charles Deister, director of government and media relations for NorthernStar Natural Gas. “There are a lot of false claims out there when little would change.”
Samantha Chirrillo, a spokesperson for CCN, said the bill would actually deny property rights to Oregonians who would no longer have a say in what the state does with their land.
“It fast-tracks the LNG industry at the expense of Oregon land owners,” said University sociology graduate student Wes Shirley, who is the chair of external relations for the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation. “It is bad enough that Oregon has already allowed volatile LNG terminals to put Oregonians at risk.”
The bill was moved to the rules committee Tuesday, and Chirrillo said she asked rules committee member Rep. Chris Edwards to not give the bill a hearing.
“The last hearing was a disaster; the only people that gave testimonies were from corporations,” she said. “No citizens spoke, even though there were 100 there on behalf of their land rights.”
Deister defends the use of LNG in Oregon. He said it is a clean and effective energy source that has not contributed to any major accidents since it was first used in the late-1950s. Deister said that without HB 3058, LNG companies are forced to use eminent domain to attain affected citizens’ signatures before they apply for fill-removal permits, when in the end, the path of the natural gas pipes usually varies greatly.
“It seems ridiculous that we would have to condemn someone’s property for use, and then later realize we didn’t even need their land for our project,” he said. “HB 3058 would only make it easier to apply for a permit, but we still have to get full approval from land owners before we can actually get the permit.”
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