NW Natural will pass along a whopper of a rate increase to customers in the upcoming months; an increase that could top 40% (here). Local and state officials have known about this upcoming increase for quite some time. You probably knew. But that knowledge hasn’t stopped the Governor from putting up more roadblocks to building a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal inland 20 miles from Astoria along the Columbia River at a place called Bradwood Landing.
The Guv has asked FERC, the federal authority that was preparing to undertake a preliminary assessment of the plans, to stop to allow for more opposition to the plant. Natch. The Guv is arraying all taxpayers’ resources and Environment Incorporated– Big Green– to throw as much opposition against the wall to see what sticks. Already FERC has taken the LNG proposal off Thursday’s schedule and hasn’t rescheduled a hearing. The Guv claims the companies proposing the site changed their proposal. Whether that change is a material difference or whether they changed punctuation somewhere, we don’t know. One thing we do know, the Guv’s buying time and tilling the ground to grow more opposition to the plant. He’s looking at forcing the companies to do a new or revised Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). In other words, the environmental professional conflict industry is gearing up for a paper work fight.
Like every other kind of energy source, the left will blockade, lawyer up, and keep it from a public that needs it (drilling, nuclear, shale). For an example I give you Barney Frank’s “wild and scenic” river here. But Environment Inc doesn’t care about people it seems. Just legal fees from taxpayers, a hash mark in the win column, a fuzzy poster creature to look good in fundraising letters, and higher prices for consumers. Oh, and let’s just put down this marker too: I’m sure somebody will find a unique flower or creature nobody’s ever seen in that area near Bradwood Landing—and soon. No? Read here.