State regulators have rejected a request from backers of a proposed liquefied natural gas export project in Coos Bay to extend their application for an important permit, saying they are still lacking critical information to make their decision.
The Department of State Lands will deliver its verdict on a removal-fill application, which applies to moving materials during construction in Oregon waters – by Jan. 31. A recent letter to backers of the Jordan Cove Energy Project suggests that a rejection could be in the offing.
Last week, Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Corp., requested that the agency extend its decision deadline until March 31.
In a Tuesday response, Vicki Walker, the agency director, went through chapter and verse of the agency’s interactions with Jordan Cove since 2017, including applications, extensions, resubmittals, extension requests, information requests and meetings. The most recent requests for information from the agency came in April, and were reiterated in November.
"The Department does not agree to an extension and is therefore denying your request,” Walker concluded. She also tacked on a warning: "Please be aware the Department has not yet received requested critical information."
Pembina said Wednesday that the delay was due to the agency’s requirement that its application be accompanied by information and feedback from other agencies.
“Due to requests for new information from other Oregon agencies that were only recently communicated to Jordan Cove, the Project is now unable to meet DSL’s requirements in the current time frame," said Paul Vogel, a spokesman for the project. “As we seek to fully understand the information contained in Director Walker’s letter, we are working to determine our path forward.”
A permit denial would be welcome news for opponents of the controversial project.
"As impacted landowners, this project has been hanging over our heads for over 15 years,” Larry Mangan, a Coos County resident, said in a news release. “We are extremely relieved to hear that Director Walker and the department of state lands aren't going to kick the can down the road, and will be making a decision next week."
But if the permit is rejected, Jordan Cove can re-apply, opening another chapter in the seemingly never-ending permitting saga for the proposed liquefied natural gas export terminal in Coos Bay and a 230-mile feeder pipeline that would stretch across southern Oregon to a gas hub near Klamath County’s border with California.
A new application would trigger another review of all submitted materials and possibly another public comment period.
That’s potentially a big deal. Last year’s public comment period included five public meetings across the state. More than 2,000 people attended and the 49,000 comments were submitted to the agency.
Just last week, Pembina crowed in a news release about the momentum the project is gaining. The Coos Bay City Council recently approved its local land use application, and federal fisheries regulators issued a final biological opinion concluding that the construction and operation of the terminal wouldn’t jeopardize endangered species. The company also says it has negotiated voluntary easement agreement with 82% of landowners impacted by the pipeline.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is expected to render a decision on its main license on Feb. 13. Based on the conclusions in a draft environmental impact statement issued last year, and the Trump Administration’s stated goal of expediting energy export projects, the commission is widely expected to approve the project.
That leaves the project’s state permits as the biggest remaining hurdles. And that process is not going as smoothly.
Last May, the Department of Environmental Quality rejected Jordan Cove’s water quality permit, saying it still lacked critical information and that it did not have “a reasonable assurance that the construction and authorization of the project will comply with applicable Oregon water quality standards.”
Earlier this month, Jim Rue, director of the Department of Land Conservation, sent a scathing letter to Pembina in response to concerns the company had expressed about the agency’s review of the project under the Coastal Zone Management Act.
In the letter, Rue denied the company’s request to issue a conditional decision, saying the agency would need almost all the other state permits in hand before it made its own decision.
Rue also responded to what he called the “inaccuracies and mischaracterizations” by Jordan Cove in its letter, saying the agency had been perfectly clear about its process; had not misrepresented federal policy, as claimed; and that the agency “must weigh all impacts from the project, not just the benefits.” He also said “all work by DLCD is based on science and regulations, and not, as you suggest, activism.”
Pembina has managed to step on Oregon regulators’ toes in the past. At one point, its chief executive Mick Dilger told financial analysts that Oregon agencies were “overwhelmed” because they’d never seen applications for billion dollar hydrocarbon projects, and that “their regulators aren’t quite capable of this.”