The Curious Commissioner Hazen's Position On LNG

(The new county seal Artwork is courtesty of Marc Auerbach, borrowed from Astoria Photografix)

From Willamette Week Story Forum Archive written on September 30th, 2005 12:00amComment 9 Respond

"LNG is welcome in Warrenton
The majority of people that I have spoken with in Warrenton are in favor of the Calpine proposal to locate a LNG facility here. We have seen the decline of jobs in the fishing and wood products industry. The economic impact of having a facility that provides family wage jobs is tremendous for our town of just over 4200 people. Warrenton has long been business friendly and we welcome the addition of this facility. LNG has been safely handled for decades. One should not be influenced by the opponents "the sky is falling" arguments that siting a facility here will result in a fiery inferno. As with other industries, there are risks. However, modern day engineering provides for facilies that are designed to be safe. Controls are in place to ensure the safety of the facility and the area surrounding it. Others will accuse me of being a "paid lackey" for Calpine, but I am just a concerned citizen looking to the future economic well being of our town."
—Jeff Hazen

Jeff Hazen testimony before House Committee on Sustainability and Economic Development, April 16 2009, re HB2015 - The LNG Public Protection Act, HB 2015 would have protected Oregon's farms, forests, rivers and public lands from the irresponsible development of Liquefied Natural Gas terminals and pipelines. It died without a committee vote. After its failure, LNG opponents focused attention on HB 3058, a bill that would 'fast-track' the LNG pipeline siting process. That bill passed the House but is awaiting committee action in the Senate.

Hazen testified about HB 2015 before the Oregon House Committee on Sustainability and Economic Development, April 16, 2009, starting at 12:39pm. The audio is split in two, with the first part only 10 minutes in length, and the second part following on automatically.
http://www.leg.state.or.us/listn/archive/archive.2009s/HSED-200904161239.ram

The question? Was Hazen out of bounds in testifying before this committee with outstanding issues, yet resolved before him? Is there cause for a conflict in this conduct?

At about 1:33:00 (on the audio) Bob Austin, Clackamas County Commissioner testified in support of HB2015.

At about 1:35:10, Commissioner Hazen began: Rep. Brad Witt: Mr. Chairman, I’d just like to recognize that Mr. Hazen is a constituent and, as you have already noted, the Chair of the Clatsop County Commission.

Chair: Thank you. Mr. Commissioner.

Hazen: Sorry for missing…I think we both missed the 100-mile check box. Chair Reed, members of the Committee, it’s an honor to be here today.

The only reason I came today was just to describe the process briefly that we went through in Clatsop County.

We have two different proposals for LNG facilities located in our county, and we went through an exhaustive review for the Bradwood Landing one.

This is a review, a land use process that took over ten months.

We had hearings last year, I think there was one day that we had a hearing….

Chair: Mr. Commissioner, I’m sorry to interrupt you. I need for you to identify yourself for the record.

Hazen: Jeff Hazen, Clatsop County Commissioner, Chairman.

One hearing, the long one, was held at the Liberty Theater, and was well over 10 hours in taking testimony, so it was a very open and transparent process.

It was something that the county has never gone through before with this extensive of a land use process.

One thing I did want to add was, you know, Senator Walker was talking about reimbursement for the State, and that’s one thing that the County does have in place. We have a Long Term Financial Plan that requires that we recover the costs of things. So, Northern Star Natural Gas has been charged with all the fees that we’ve expended for that process.

We generated well over 10,000 pages for the process.

Last year Commissioner Samuelson and myself traveled back to the FERC hearing in Washington, DC and, as you heard earlier, they had over 50,000 pages of testimony and documentation. I thought it was interesting, in that room they did bring in the carts full of all the testimony, so it was actually in the room. It was quite a site to see.

What it gets down to, I think that the question that you need to ask is: Do we need additional processes, additional bureaucracy, and I would just caution you with that in dealing with these.

So, with that, if you have any questions, I’d be more than happy to ask…answer.

Chair: We have a very short period of time. Any questions for the Commissioner? Seeing none, let’s see how many more we can get in in the remaining couple minutes. . . . .