Challengers to Jordan Cove LNG get their day in federal court

Oral argument for lawsuit challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and Pacific Connector gas pipeline (Evans v. FERC) is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 28

WHEN: Thursday, October 28, 6:00am-9:30am PST.

WHERE: U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Watch live on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/USCourtsCADC) or the recording of the audio (https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/recordings/recordings.nsf/.)

WHAT: Affected landowners, multiple Tribal governments, community advocates, and the state of Oregon filed a lawsuit (Evans v. FERC) challenging FERC’s conditional approval of the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and fracked gas pipeline in March of 2020. The groups will argue FERC failed to consider critical information about the proposed facility, including impacts to private property rights, Tribal resources, and the environment, and that it is not in the public interest.

WHY: For over a decade, communities across Southern Oregon have come together to stop the proposed Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and Pacific Connector fracked gas pipeline. Currently, construction for Jordan Cove LNG cannot move forward because of denied, overturned, and withdrawn federal, state, and local permits. However, with this approval from FERC, the company could use the power of eminent domain to seize private property from Southern Oregonians along the pipeline route. If the FERC permit is successfully overturned in this lawsuit, the project proponent (Pembina) will lose its ability to seize private property and have no remaining approvals for Jordan Cove LNG.

Canadian fossil fuel corporation Pembina has proposed a 230-mile, 36-inch-wide Pacific Connector fracked gas pipeline through southwestern Oregon to the proposed Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Coos Bay, Oregon. At this terminal, fracked gas from the pipeline would be cooled and liquefied and put on massive tankers to ship over 1 billion cubic feet of fracked gas per day to Asia. If built, the Jordan Cove LNG project would be the largest single source of climate pollution in Oregon and would harm hundreds of waterways, including the Rogue, Klamath, and South Umpqua rivers. In Coos Bay, dredging required for the large ships to enter the estuary would remove over 6 million cubic yards of material, threatening local jobs in fishing, crabbing, and recreation, Tribal archaeological and cultural resources, and the health of the bay. LNG is highly explosive and a terminal in the tsunami zone would place over 16,000 Coos County residents in the “hazardous burn zone.”

WHO: Plaintiffs challenging FERC’s approval of Jordan Cove LNG include the state of Oregon, Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw (represented by Wheat Law Offices), Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, Deb Evans and 30 other landowner petitioners (represented by the Niskanen Center), and Rogue Riverkeeper, Rogue Climate, Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity, Citizens for Renewables, Friends of Living Oregon Waters, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Oregon Wild, Oregon Women’s Land Trust, and Waterkeeper Alliance (represented by the Sierra Club and Western Environmental Law Center.)

Affected landowner Deb Evans, Niskanen Center Senior Staff Attorney Megan Gibson, Western Environmental Law Center Staff Attorney Susan Jane Brown, and attorney for the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umqpua and Siuslaw Indians, Rick Eichstaedt, will be available for comment after the hearing.

Contacts:

Susan Jane Brown, 503-690-5513, gro.w1732297015alnre1732297015tsew@1732297015nworb1732297015

Deb Evans, 541-601-4748, moc.l1732297015iamg@17322970153norb1732297015ed1732297015

Megan Gibson, 202-810-9260, gro.r1732297015etnec1732297015nenak1732297015sin@n1732297015osbig1732297015m1732297015

Rick Eichstaedt, 509-251-1424, moc.s1732297015eciff1732297015owalt1732297015aehw@1732297015kcir1732297015

Evans v. FERC briefs and related documents: