Bradwood Landing LNG plan halted

The NorthernStar Natural Gas company said late Tuesday it has suspended development of its Bradwood Landing liquified natural gas import terminal near Astoria.

NorthernStar blamed “extended delays in the processing of state and federal permits for Bradwood Landing and the difficult investment environment, said Paul Soanes, the company’s president, in a news release.

The project sparked protests from activists who fear that liquified natural gas terminals can potentially cause environmental harm.

Officials from Oregon, Washington and the U.S. Department of Justice launched a lawsuit against the Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas terminal in March 2009. The Justice Department represented the National Marine Fisheries Service, which joined the states’ appeal of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s permit approval for the terminal.

The project would have sat on the banks of the lower Columbia River in Clatsop County.

Soanes said the company had launched a $59 million voluntary, yet “legally binding,” Salmon Enhancement Initiative in conjunction with the project.

“While we’re disappointed, we are truly grateful for the tremendous support the project received from citizens in Clatsop County and Oregon’s business and labor communities,” he said in the news release. “Bradwood Landing is a great example of a project that business and labor came together to support. Not only would it have created hundreds of jobs, but it would have provided a needed new source of natural gas, which would have helped stabilize energy costs for thousands of businesses.”

NorthernStar listed such project supporters as the Oregon AFL-CIO, the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council, the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council, the Oregon Machinists Council, the Washington Machinists Council, Carpenters Local 1707, the International Longshore Workers’ Union and the Steamship Operators Association.

The pipeline would have stretched for 36.3 miles and, according to Soanes, and created more than 500 permanent and construction jobs.

Bradwood Landing was one of three competing LNG proposals for the northwest part of Oregon. Insiders predicted only one, if any, would eventually get built.

The other two — Oregon LNG and Jordan Cove Energy Project LP — remain under development.