Keep Fracked Gas Out of Oregon

Help Stop Jordan Cove LNG and the Pacific Connector Pipeline

For over a decade, the fossil fuel industry has targeted southern Oregon as the site for a fracked gas pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal. If built, this project would not only be the largest greenhouse gas polluter in the state, but would cause irrevocable damage to Oregon’s waterways and wildlife, endanger public safety, and threaten traditional tribal lands.  See this animation about the project.

The 232-mile Pacific Connector Pipeline would carry methane gas from the fracking fields of Canada and the Rockies, cut through private and public lands and cross 400 waterways. The fracked gas would be transported to the Jordan Cove LNG terminal, a new facility on the southern Oregon coast. From here, it would be super-cooled to turn it into a liquid, put on huge tankers, and sent to Asia.

350PDX is part of a large coalition of climate justice and conservation groups, native tribes, landowners, businesses, and concerned residents working together to stop this proposed project and protect our home from fossil fuel exports. Here’s why:

• The project would be Oregon’s largest single climate polluter. If built, the project would make it nearly impossible for Oregon to achieve climate reductions to meet the Paris Accords’ 2-degree target. Taking into account the full lifecyle emissions of the project–from fracking to combustion–a new analysis shows that it would lead to at least 36 million metric tons of greenhouse gases annually, the equivalent of an additional 7.9 million cars on the road, and 15.4 times the power plant emissions of the Boardman Coal Plant, Oregon’s only coal fired power plant that is closing in 2020.  

• Traditional  tribal  territories, cultural resources,  and  burial  grounds  are  threatened  by  both  the  pipeline and the  LNG  export  facility. The Karuk, Hoopa, Yurok, and Klamath Tribes have all passed resolutions opposing the pipeline.  

• Farmer and landowner rights will be trampled. Nearly 700 private landowners will be impacted along the pipeline route and many will be threatened with eminent domain if they do not settle for a small, one-time payment for permanent use of their land.

• Nearly 400 rivers and streams would be threatened, including the Klamath, Rogue, Umpqua, Coos, and Coquille rivers, as well as the Coos Bay estuary. Pipeline construction will degrade fish habitat and water quality at each waterway crossing.

• LNG is highly explosive. Those living in or near the proposed path of the pipeline face the threat of a gas explosion near their  home. Forest fires in 2017 came as close as 8 miles to the proposed route.

• The LNG terminal would be located in an earthquake subduction and tsunami zone. Geologists calculate the odds of an earthquake and tsunami occuring during the working life of the terminal to be more than 1 in 3.

• The pipeline would require a 95-foot wide clearcut that would slice through old-growth forests, degrade endangered species habitat, increase erosion, and open a highway for invasive species. The clearcut would be maintained with herbicides known to be harmful to fish and other wildlife.

The project has already been rejected twice by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. But now that the current administration has named the Jordan Cove LNG project as one of its top priorities, it is expected that the Commission will approve it.

The good news is that Oregon has the authority to stop this dangerous project in its tracks regardless of what actions the federal government may take. Let’s shut down the project once and for all!