SAN FRANCISCO, July 7, 2009 - In a letter to PG&E's CEO Peter Darbee, 30 California and Oregon public interest organizations asked that the company drop its commitment to a project that would bring imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) into California by way of Oregon. The project involves an LNG import terminal located in Coos Bay, Oregon, and a 230-mile pipeline that will connect the terminal to the California border. If approved and built the project could import 1 billion cubic feet of imported natural gas per day.
The project faces wide opposition from Oregon residents as well as from leading political figures such as Senator Jeff Merkley and former Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury. Other political leaders, including Governor Ted Kulongoski and Senator Ron Wyden, have protested the federal government's handling of the environmental review for the project.
"This project is a giant step in the wrong direction for PG&E," said Rory Cox, California Program Director at Pacific Environment. "It will make California even more dependent on fossil fuels from foreign countries, while PG&E should be investing in local renewable energy projects instead."
"PG&E's misguided venture into LNG comes with a heavy price tag to Oregon's rivers, streams, forest and farmlands," said Jody McCaffree, Executive Director of Citizens Against LNG, a Coos Bay community organization working to stop the project.
The letter, which is endorsed by the leadership of Pacific Environment, The Utility Reform Network, Public Citizen, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations, and 26 other organizations, asks PG&E to divest from the project for the following reasons:
* The project is unnecessary, given the availability of domestic natural gas, the declining use of natural gas in California, and California's commitment to efficiency and renewables.
* The project will increase PG&E's overall greenhouse gas emissions by up to 1.5 million tons per year due to the full lifecycle emissions involved in LNG production and transportation.
* The project will endanger over 17,000 residents in the Coos Bay area with storage tanks and ships that will hold millions of gallons of LNG. LNG, when it vaporizes, is highly flammable, and a 3 mile radius around the terminal is considered a "hazard zone." The facility would be sited near an airport and in an area prone to large earthquakes and tsunamis.
* Pipeline construction and the right-of-way around the pipeline will raze thousands of acres of Oregon's forests, including habitat of the critically endangered northern spotted owl and the marbled murrelet. The pipeline will cross over 100 streams which are habitat for the coho salmon.
* LNG is associated with global human rights and environmental problems. A recent massacre of indigenous protesters in Peru was reportedly carried out by government forces funded in part by Camisea, which supplies fuel to the Peru LNG project. Environmental problems caused by Shell Oil on Russia's Sakhalin Island provided a pretext for a takeover of the project by the Russian Government in 2006. Both of these projects are among those listed as tentative providers of LNG to PG&E.
* PG&E should invest in energy efficiency and renewables instead of a new dependence on foreign fossil fuels.
