[ In December 2007, the Jordan Cove Energy Project and the Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline applied for approval from the ]Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates the interstate transmission and wholesale sale of electricity and natural gas and regulates the prices of interstate transport ...
(FERC). An environmental impact statement
An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States environmental law, is a document required by the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An E ...
for both projects was issued in May 2009.
The original developers of the Jordan Cove project are Energy Projects Development Limited. The current lead investor in the Jordan Cove terminal is Veresen
Veresen Inc. was a Calgary, Alberta-based energy infrastructure company with three main lines of business: pipelines, natural gas and power generation. It was a publicly-traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and was known as Fort Chicago E ...
, an energy infrastructure company based in Calgary, Alberta.
The investors in the pipeline are Williams and Veresen. FERC approved the project in December 2009. In April 2012, FERC vacated the approval upon notification that the owners would no longer be pursuing an import facility. In May 2013, Jordan Cove filed applications with FERC to construct and operate a liquefied natural gas
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume o ...
export facility. In June 2015, the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians
The Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians of Oregon are a federally recognized Native American tribe of Hanis Coos, Miluk Coos, Lower Umpqua (or Kuitsh), and Siuslaw people in Oregon.[Veresen
Veresen Inc. was a Calgary, Alberta-based energy infrastructure company with three main lines of business: pipelines, natural gas and power generation. It was a publicly-traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and was known as Fort Chicago E ...]
had not demonstrated the need for the project, and that the benefits from the project would not outweigh the harm done to individual landowners to justify the use of eminent domain
Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...
. On March 25, Veresen announced that they had found a potential buyer for the gas that would be exported, which was a consortium of Japanese utilities, but no contracts were signed. They suggested they appeal the decision by FERC and lost that appeal in December 2016. The project was cancelled in late 2021.
In 2025, a new startup, OA Partners LLC, has filed an appeal with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to attempt to reverse the 2016 FERC rejection of the project.
Law Enforcement Response and Surveillance
In 2019, it was revealed by The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
that opponents of Jordan Cove Energy Project were being monitored by the FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
and other government agencies. A subsequent investigation by The Intercept
''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing nonprofit news organization that publishes articles and podcasts online. ''The Intercept'' has published in English since its founding in 2014, and in Portuguese since the 2016 launch of the Brazilia ...
and Type Investigations, based on more than 15,000 pages of documents obtained via open records requests, found that Pembina Pipeline was the sole source of funding for a unit in the Coos County sheriff department dedicated to handling security concerns related to Jordan Cove. This included purchasing riot control equipment, monitoring the activities of Jordan Cove opponents, and coordinating intelligence-gathering operations with private security companies
A private security company is a business entity which provides armed or unarmed security services and expertise to clients in the private or public sectors.
Overview
Private security companies are defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic ...
working for Pembina. They also funded a two-day training in November 2018, organized by the National Sheriffs’ Association.
Despite no evidence of committing crimes, these investigations documented how the environmental and Indigenous groups opposing the pipeline were surveilled by the Oregon TITAN Fusion Center
In the United States, fusion centers are designed to promote information sharing at the federal level between agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Justice, and sta ...
under the pretext of "counterterrorism." In 2021, individuals surveilled by the Fusion Center filed a lawsuit, alleging that the monitoring of activists was illegal.
Reactions
The Jordan Cove LNG project has been long opposed by impacted communities, including landowners, Tribes, commercial fishermen, and more across Southern Oregon for over a decade. In 2018, a poll found 57 percent either strongly opposed or leaned toward opposing the Jordan Cove Energy Project, versus 22 percent who either leaned toward supporting or strongly supported the project. US Senator Jeff Merkley
Jeffrey Alan Merkley (born October 24, 1956) is an American politician who is the junior United States senator from Oregon. He was first elected to the Senate in 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 1999 to 2009 as the repres ...
and US Representative Peter Defazio publicly opposed this project.
Facing widespread opposition and lacking a number of key permits necessary for construction, the project stalled out in 2020. In 2022, Pembina announced that the pipeline and export terminal would not be built, and the project was permanently canceled.
References
External links
*Jordan Cove Energy Project, https://web.archive.org/web/20100512034328/http://jordancoveenergy.com/
*Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline, http://www.pacificconnectorgp.com/
*Citizens Against LNG, http://www.citizensagainstlng.com
*Rogue Riverkeeper, http://rogueriverkeeper.org/lng
{{coord , 43.425 , -124.269 , type:landmark_region:US-OR_source:googlemapssatellite , display=title
Coos Bay, Oregon
Energy infrastructure in Oregon
Liquefied natural gas plants
Proposed liquefied natural gas terminals