Wyden Talks LNG with Clatsop County Residents

by Tryan Hartill

With gale-force winds howling outside and lights flickering inside, citizens gathered at Seaside City Hall and pressed Ron Wyden about when the winds of change are coming to Washington D.C. Wyden promised 11 years ago to have a town-hall meeting in every county at least once a year as long as he has an Oregon Senate seat.

This was Clatsop County’s chance to sound off.

Most of the audience questions involved one of 3 subjects, health care, LNG and storms, although no topic was off limits in this town hall-style gathering at the beach. Wyden was even asked how he would address the lack of good live music in Seaside.

Wyden: “I’ve been asked a lot of questions in my life, but never about getting into the local music business”.

Wyden Leaning No on LNG

From the start, many in the audience wanted to hear Wyden’s position on LNG on the Columbia River. As hard as they tried, Wyden wouldn’t give a firm yes or no. Wyden did stress how upset he was with the process of siting LNG import terminals.

Wyden: “If it’s not a fair process I can tell you what will happen, FERC will rubber-stamp everything”.....”We’ll see if we can pound some sense into this agency as opposed to what they are doing”

Wyden plans to bring FERC Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff to the Lower Columbia within the next 3 weeks. Wellinghoff will receive input from locals about citing LNG import facilities on the Lower Columbia. He is one of 5 votes that makes the final decision on whether to site a LNG terminal or not.

Wyden also explained how upset he was when the 2005 Energy bill passed and gave FERC total power to site LNG terminals.

Wyden: “The vote basically pushed the States out of it and gave the authority to…....FERC”.

After 4 citizens asked him about his position on LNG, he responded that he doesn’t support it on the Columbia under the current circumstances.

Wyden: “Until we have a fair process that looks at what this means in terms of fish, safety, communications and dredging, I don’t think the Federal Government should go ahead and give this the OK”.

Click the play button on one of the media players above for audio clips. If for some reason it doesn’t work, click the underlined link and play it like a mp3 track

Previous Article:
« Storm Roundup

Next Article:
Local Youth Well Represented at Ron Wyden Meeting »

Links

Local Weather

• Buoy reports
• Forecast Glance
• MSL Forecast Center
• NOAA Satellite Loop
• Pacific Satellite
• Road Conditions
• Tide Book

Local Links

• Astoria Dispatch
• CCFog
• Josephson's Smokehouse
• Local Gas Prices
• OPB Public Newsroom
• Oregon Live-Oregonian
• The Daily Astorian

Local Government

• Astoria-Warrenton Chamber
• Betsy Johnson
• Brad Witt
• City of Astoria
• City of Seaside
• Clatsop College
• Clatsop County
• Port of Astoria
• State of Oregon
• Ted Kulongoski

Clatsop Blog Network

• Jeff Hazen IS Commish
• 33 Days
• Tom Freel's Coastwatch
• Astoria Citizens Journal
• Astoria Kiwanis Blog
• Astoria Mung
• Astoria Rust
• Astorianna
• Auntie L
• Burning Corn
• Dried Salmon Matters
• Dried Salmon Mess. Board
• GrassRootsPeople
• Josh Marquis
• KAST ProBrd Forum
• Life in the Great Northwet
• Mom of Three
• Oregon Guy
• Peter Huhtula
• The Rust Message Board
• Walluski Babble

Oregon Blogroll

• NW Republican
• BlueOregon
• Jack Bog
• Loaded Orygun
• Oregon Catalyst
• Oregon Country
• The Grich

National Blogroll

• DailyKos
• Digg
• EconBrowser
• Lew Rockwell
• Reason Online
• Reds Trading Post
• RedState
• The Oil Drum

Contact Info

• MySpace Page

Article Tags

• WebNews
• Richard Lee
• Clatsop County
• Josh Marquis
• Astoria
• Clatsop Commission
• OpEd
• LNG
• Stipend
• Energy
• Marquis
• Kiwanis
• Recall
• Clatsop County Commission
• Charter Amendment
• Democrats
• Oregon
• photo
• DA Pay
• Sam Patrick