At a standing-room-only meeting
last week in Astoria
, on Tuesday evening about 75 people heard a presentation about Oregon LNG's plan to liquefy and export
natural gas in Warrenton.
According to Dan Serres,
Conservation Director of Columbia Riverkeeper, and Ted Gleichman, Chair, LNG
Committee of the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club, Oregon LNG plans to pipe in natural gas from Canada and the US,
liquefy and store it in Warrenton, load it on LNG tankers, then ship it
overseas where it would be regasified and piped to utilities and consumers.
Project opponent and Astoria resident Laurie
Caplan attended the presentation. One of
her concerns is the danger to a populated area in the event of a gas leak and
explosion.
Caplan.wav
“There are real impacts for Warrenton.
Because of the way LNG is formulated, its not odorized, and its
invisible, but it tends to stay low to the ground because its cold. When there’s a leak, anything can set it off;
a lit cigarette, or a spark from a boat engine.
Those condos are right within that hazard zone in Warrenton, but when
you take it out to the, I think you have to go out two miles, maybe thee miles,
then its also hitting a bunch of the Uniontown area and Smith Point of Astoria.”
(:40)
Oregon LNG's revised pipeline
route goes through Clatsop and Columbia
Counties before crossing into Cowlitz County, WA.
136 miles of new pipeline would run the length of Washington up to the Canadian border.
Opponents to the export of
natural gas, say in likely overseas markets such as Korea,
China, and Japan - current natural gas prices are up to five
times the price US
customers pay. Domestic natural gas
providers and their customers would end up paying the global price for natural
gas, in spite of a plentiful domestic supply.
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