In an emergency congressional session this month, the state Senate deliberated on two bills concerning the immediate future of Oregon’s energy infrastructure.
The outcomes of both bills represent tentative victories for environmental advocates.
House Bill 3613, extending the ban on ocean oil exploration and production, lived to see another day and potentially become law, while Senate Bill 1020, easing the permit process for liquid natural gas pipelines, died before reaching the Senate floor.
HB 3613 extends a long-standing ban on the exploration of Oregon’s coastal waters for the purpose of offshore drilling. The bill was approved yesterday by the senate in a 22-8 bipartisan vote.
The moratorium on offshore drilling, which was first adopted in the early 1990s and renewed in 2007, expired 49 days ago. The bill, which would extend the moratorium for 10 years, will now be sent to Gov. Ted Kulongoski for his approval. The governor has already testified in support of the bill.
The bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Ben Cannon (D-Portland), wrote in a statement about the importance of the bill after it passed in a House vote earlier this month.
“Oregon policy has stated for decades that the primary economic use of our ocean must involve renewable resources,” he said. “Our predecessors had the wisdom to understand that fishing, crabbing and renewable energy would supply a greater long-term source of economic prosperity than developing a few days’ worth of oil and natural gas.”
According to the Oregon Legislature, the bill had the signed support of 28 different groups along the Oregon coast, including commercial fishing organizations, businesses dependent on tourist dollars and conservation groups. In addition to the bill’s environmental significance, legislators speak of its economic importance to these coastal businesses.
“I think it makes especially good sense for coastal communities whose livelihood relies on fish, on crab and on tourism,” Cannon said.
Cannon, who chairs the House Committee on Environment and Water , said the bill he originally introduced proposed a permanent ban on offshore drilling in Oregon, and that the 10-year lifespan of the ban was a concession to skeptical committee members. He also said the revised 10-year ban met no direct opposition in Senate hearings yesterday.
“We didn’t get any opposition in committee,” Cannon said. “Some floor speeches were
opposed to the length of the ban. They wanted it to be shorter, but as it’s written now, the bill’s sunset is in 2020.”
The U.S. Minerals Management Service has estimated there are 400 million barrels of undiscovered oil under the entire Oregon and Washington outer continental shelf. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, this amount would supply the entire country for only 20 days.
SB 1020 would have allowed out-of-state companies to seek state permits to build LNG coastal terminals and pipelines across Oregon without landowner consent. The bill stalled in the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Sen. Jackie Dingfelder (D-Portland), and was not scheduled by the Senate deadline earlier this month.
Adam Meyer, Dingfelder’s legislative aid, said the bill did not have the support necessary to make it out of committee in the deadlines of the emergency session.
“In a relatively short session like this, this particular bill just didn’t have the support to baby it across the line,” he said. “As I understand it, it was just not
a priority.”
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