LNG Revisited

Anti-LNG Tin Hat Brigade
OK, I’m pissed and I’m going to do it. I, here and now officially change my opinion on LNG. Yes, I was an opponent of it for about three years. I’ve attended meetings and donated money to the cause. I got the pins, lawn sign and stickers and spoke out in opposition whenever I had the opportunity. I’ve written articles and posted opinions against LNG, but now I am changing my mind. I no longer oppose it. Here are the reasons:

1. I don’t see anyone changing their behavior. I’ve driven by the homes with "No LNG" signs in their yards and see porch lights left on all night. If you aren’t willing to conserve you deserve LNG in your back yard. What, do you think Pacific Power can just pull power out of their ass for you to waste? No, it comes from the hydro dams that you want removed and it comes from coal which really screws up the air and atmosphere. I am a 100% partner of the Pacific Power Blue Sky Program where I pay a lot extra every month to support wind energy. I have no illusion that any of my power is actually coming from a wind mill, but it's going to someone. I would rather see windmills all up and down the coast than have an LNG facility here, but that is never going to happen. I would be happy to see every community being responsible for their own power generation, but that’s never going to happen with the grid system. So do I want to get off the grid and go back to the good old days where I spent several hours every month cutting and splitting firewood and extinguishing chimney fires? No! I want to wake up in the morning and feel warm because my heat pump was plugged into the grid all night. If diversified energy sources for power generation can not happen then we deserve energy rationing.

2. I’m tired of the lies and exaggerations. The sky is not falling. Is there a chance that there will be a disaster? Yes, it is possible and it is also possible that the Oprah will fall in love with me split her fortune with me. All things are possible, but not likely. Let’s face it the ensuing dooms day is not at hand. I have more concerns about the pipeline, but the ships and the facility are unlikely to ever have a problem. From burning coal and driving automobiles we have changed the climate and the disasters we see and will continue to see are storms like our December storm. This is a disaster that swept its hand on every part of the County and we still haven’t recovered from it. So leave that porch light on all night and you are fueling the future storms. By the way, are you expecting visitors at 3:00AM? On the same note of honesty, I would like a little more honesty from the industry as to just who will be getting how much of what is imported through here. Any volume that leaves this state should be taxed at a high rate and the money collected should go to every community who has a facility or pipeline running through it.

3. As for it being an invitation for terrorists, does it means we should close and remove our airport, the port and bridges as well? Aren't they targets, too? Remember when the former Sheriff wanted to arm his posse to protect the Astoria Bridge? He thought it was a good target. How about the cruise ships? They are targets. How about ships from foreign countries that have radicals who hate America? They could be floating bombs. Should we ban all shipping in the Columbia?

4. LNG is actually relatively clean burning. Even though you may be driving a Pious, I mean Prius and you may think you are superior you are still putting a lot of poison in our air. If you don't think so maybe you should try driving around Astoria with a hose pipped from your exhaust to the passenger compartment. If you want to impress me convert your car to burn propane. It's clean and burns at 100 octane. That's more power than you will ever get from ethanol, which by the way takes a gallon of fossil fuel to produce one and a third gallon of final product ethanol.

5. I took a good look at who the anti-LNG people are, and I have little respect for their opinions on the other topics they espouse. By default their LNG opinion is faulty as well especially if they have gas heat in their home, use a gas grill or run their automobile on foreign oil. It's time to roll up your made in China-petroleum based yoga mats and look at a different reality other than the holistic dream you presently live in. You can't have it both ways, it's like being a little pregnant. Either remove yourself from modern society or accept the consequences of you consumption demands.

Leading the Wack Pack is the Daily Astorian. The publisher is a shoot from the hip kind of guy who has overestimated the value of his opinion in this community. His paper is simply a pulpit and a nursery for his ideas and he only allows his cherry picked slant to be published and presented as truth. By judging what he has supported in the past, remember he loved the Rajneesh movement… I do not value any causes he champions.

Other than posting this article I am not going to campaign for LNG. I don’t want a Bradwood Landing sign, I don’t want to be in any of their support ads, (unless they pay very well for an endorsement) however I am no longer going to oppose it. It is said that people get the government they deserve. They also get the energy they deserve.

Natural Gas Stinks

I’ve written before on how when you write something on a blog, there are people who work for companies who scan blogs just so they can do damage control or plug their industry in the blog comments. I wrote about a product a few months ago and they replied with a message about their company and a contest they were having. Our pal Beth wrote about the problem she was having with another company and their team contacted her immediately to resolve the problem. I believe this happened with my article yesterday. I wrote about electrical power and I got an anonymous reply that talked about the virtues of natural gas. You can read it the reply yesterday.

Their message was purely a positive spin akin to “Who doesn’t love puppies.”
If you continue on to read my reply I go on a rant about how dangerous natural gas is. How often have you seen what is left of a house after a natural gas explosion? It is total destruction.

The gas company TV ads show a gas leak as a guy in a sloppy costume drinking milk out of a carton and then the utility worker comes and rounds him up and takes him away in his van. What they should show is what is left after an explosion and how entire neighborhoods get evacuated.

I can think of no reason, even economic that would justify having this dangerous substance pumped into ones home. A simple internet search will reveal the hundreds of times houses explodes because of natural gas. Then there are pipe line explosions. This stuff is by no means safe.

Add to that, here in Dried Salmon County we are being courted by several Texas LNG companies who not only want to build large storage tanks facilities along the Columbia River, and have large bulbous tankers coming into these ports several times a week, but they are going to build a couple hundred miles of pipeline that will render a lot of agriculture and forest land unsafe, useless and unsellable. The frequency of pipeline explosions is alarming in this country. The frequency of home and business explosions in this country is alarming as well.

So, it isn’t enough that they want to endanger our river, our shores and our property inland, but they want you to believe it is perfectly safe for home use, even though it doesn’t smell like chocolate chip cookies.

The Sad Reality of LNG

I have great sympathy for all the like minded people in the Lower Columbia region who are still putting in the effort to try to keep LNG out of our community. Sadly to say, the battle has been lost and many don’t realize it. The LNG horse has long ago left the gate.

People seem to be confused by the present Bradwood Landing ordeal. Many think it is a forum to air their concerns about the industry, but in reality it is only a forum about a zoning issue. The planning committee that conditionally suggested approval did so as an issue exclusive to zoning. Their decision had nothing to do with the evils of the industry it was all about zoning.

The sad reality is that if a zone change is not granted, all Northernstar has to do is report to FERC that the zoning restrictions are unrealistic and it all gets overturned on the Federal level.

Needless to say, LNG is a bad idea and LNG at Bradwood Landing is a disastrous idea. However LNG is coming. There are literally no barriers to the planned LNG facility in Warrenton. It is zoned for LNG and the Port Commissioners literally handed them the keys, twice. The pipeline will happen as soon as a few eminent domain papers are filed.

Senator Betsy Johnson finally found her testicles and came out of the woodwork to argue the point of the opposition that the voters have been begging her to do, but please don’t trust her intentions. She is from Columbia County where LNG is welcomed. She would like nothing better than to remove the evil LNG projects for the liberal Hippies in Clatsop County and deliver the tax revenue to Columbia County. This way she gets more future votes from residents in both counties. It is nothing more than a political ploy.

So in conclusion we are totally screwed because it is coming. Yes, the County Commissioners will be screwed no matter which way they vote on this matter, but realize their vote will be only about the Zoning.

Bradwood Landing, The Next Trojan

If you get mail in this county, yes even two year olds, you have probably received a slick piece of marketing from Northern Star AKA the folks behind the LNG facility development at Bradwood Landing. Yes, they are burning up the resources to try to convince you that they are really a nice company with their concerns to make (Clatsop) Dried Salmon County a better place for all. They are going about this the same way the tobacco industry thinks that by having a website that discusses the dangers of smoking makes it OK to continue producing their evil shit.

Northern Star was flying below my radar until the recent salmon preservation flier was mailed. Here they claim that the park on the Columbia at Fort Stevens is actually Fort Clatsip State Park, do notice how they spelled Clatsop, and placed a national monument about ten miles to the North West from where it actually is.

Next they left out the island which would have the biggest impact if there were ever a problem at Bradwood, Puget Island.

They mention mitigation, which simply means that they are going to fuck up the environment so badly with their construction and dredging that the least they can do is preserve a scrap of land that the river can reclaim at any time.

They are also going to buy Knappa a new fire station, which will come in handy when recovery efforts are needed. No fire department could possibly do anything if there were ever a disaster at an LNG terminal. Especially if the disaster happened on a tanker heading up to the facility, lets say in front of Astoria.

Folks, think it over. Sure the towns made out pretty well when the Trojan Plant was built a little further up river. New schools and all that, but remember how the public applauded when the cooling tower was brought down.

North Star is an opportunistic company that will do all it can to suck the life out of our community without regards to the safety of the citizens who live here and make their living here.

I wrote to North Star explaining my concerns with their carpet bagging behavior. The only point they addressed in their reply was that they would be willing to take me off their mailing list. I would have gone for it, but I think I’d rather see what else they plan to send out so I can comment further.

So according to them Fort “Clatsip” State Park is on the Columbia, and Puget Island doesn’t exist. These are errors in a well done publication. Can you imagine what errors are waiting for us in their plans when they build?