Longview Daily News: FERC May Rethink Their Decision On Bradwood

Longview Daily News

By Tony Lystra

Federal regulators appear poised to reconsider their approval of the Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas terminal, both supporters and opponents of the project said Friday.

But what exactly that means for the Columbia River project depends on whom you talk to.

The disclosure followed a dizzying burst of arguments from NorthernStar Natural Gas, the Houston company behind the $650 million project.

On Thursday, NorthernStar first asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to hold off on deciding whether to revisit the September decision to approve the terminal, then acknowledged on Friday that it would be illegal for the agency to do so.

Still, NorthernStar characterized FERC’s anticipated move to take up the project again as a routine, procedural measure that would not jeopardize the terminal’s fate.

The project’s opponents, however, said the approval process, which has amounted to a battle between the states and federal officials, appeared to be unraveling and that NorthernStar had engaged in a desperate bout of legal maneuvering toward the end of the week in order to save face.

“That FERC might be rethinking or reconsidering its decision is a huge setback,” said Brent Foster, the executive director of Columbia Riverkeeper, one of the environmental groups fighting the terminal. “It puts a huge cloud over FERC’s decision.”

Washington’s Assistant Attorney General Joan Marchioro said Friday that NorthernStar is clearly trying to influence FERC “at the eleventh hour.”

“It appears to me that there must be some recognition on the company’s part that the motions for rehearing have merit,” she said.

FERC officials could not be reached Friday.

Agencies in Oregon and Washington have asked FERC to reconsider its decision to approve the LNG terminal, which would be built across the Columbia River from Puget Island, as well as an accompanying pipeline that would cross Cowlitz County.

The state agencies argue that FERC illegally approved the terminal before NorthernStar secured Clean Air, Clean Water and Coastal Zone permits from Oregon and Washington.

FERC has until Monday to decide whether to grant the agencies’ request for a rehearing. Should FERC decline to revisit its decision, states and others would be free to sue the federal agency in federal court.

On Thursday, NorthernStar asked FERC to hold off on its decision.

The company said in a memo that it wants time to secure necessary state permits from Oregon and Washington and to complete a massive review of impacts on endangered species.

It also said delaying would “prevent premature and unnecessary litigation that may occur if the commission issues a final order....”

“We’re saying that’s in the public interest,” Joe Desmond, NorthernStar’s vice president of external affairs, said Friday evening.

The Oregon Attorney General’s Office fired off an answer to NorthernStar’s request Friday, saying that if FERC wants to give the states time to consider Clean Air, Water and Coast Zone permits, as NorthernStar suggests, then the best course of action would be for FERC to repeal its Sept. 18 approval of the project and start from scratch.

In addition, the Oregon memo said the law does not allow FERC to delay its decision on whether to take up the case.

Desmond acknowledged as much Friday evening, saying he expected FERC will grant a rehearing “for the limited purpose of further consideration.”

That language, he said, is important because it doesn’t mean that FERC is on the brink of reversing its approval of the Bradwood terminal. Rather, he said, it would allow FERC to respond to requests for a rehearing within the time frame required by law, without triggering lawsuits.

“Certainly this is what we would expect on Monday,” Desmond said. “We’ve explained this on a number of occasions.”

But NorthernStar’s memo was surprising for several reasons, said Foster, of Riverkeeper. The company should want to blast through the federal approval process as quickly as possible because it faces competition from Oregon LNG, which also plans an LNG terminal on the river.
The memo also represents an apparent reversal of NorthernStar’s position on which permits it should secure and in which order they should be granted.

“This is just a 180-degree change in position,” he said. “This is a hail Mary.... It has got to be the absolute last thing in the world they want to do.”