August 2022:

Great news!! The Jordan Cove Pipeline no longer threatens Owl Farm or the world’s climate! In December 2021, we prevailed against Pembina when they walked away from the project.

 Here’s what happened: In 2006, a fracked gas company asked Oregon Women’s Land Trust for permission to build a 3-foot-diameter methane pipeline through Owl Farm. They wanted to export fracked gas from Canada to Asia, and the new pipeline was to bring the gas to Coos Bay, to a new export terminal they planned to build called Jordan Cove.

 When we responded to their request to use Owl Farm for their global warming profits, we said HELL NO, even though they would have paid us about $2,000 (later they went up to $40K) for using (and destroying) 8 acres of our land containing our oldest forest. Those 8 acres were adjacent to federal land that harbored an endangered spotted owl site, land that the pipeline would also have destroyed. 

 Our fight against this multinational energy company lasted for a decade and a half, with many twists and turns. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had given Pembina (a Canadian corporation) permission to take Oregonians’ land by eminent domain, because, FERC claimed, the pipeline and export terminal project was in the “public interest.” OWLT was one of 10 plaintiffs in the 2020 lawsuit against FERC. Among other issues, our lawsuit disputed the “public interest” claim for a pipeline that would export 100% of the gas that flowed through it.  

 Other plaintiffs included local organizations like Rogue Climate, who helped to generate over 50,000 comments to the state of Oregon, resulting in Oregon not issuing the required state permits. But Pembina still had the FERC federal permit, allowing them to use the power of eminent domain to seize private property from southern Oregon land owners like OWLT. 

 On October 28th 2021, the U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard our lawsuit challenging FERC’s approval of the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and Pacific Connector gas pipeline. Lawyers from the Sierra Club and the Western Environmental Law Center represented us. They requested that the permit allowing eminent domain be paused during the court hearings.

 The three-judge panel agreed and ordered FERC to reconsider its eminent domain certificate, especially since Pembina had failed to acquire the necessary state permits. Soon after the hearing, Pembina caved and gave it all up: on December 21st, they surrendered their FERC certificate and walked away from the project! We emerged victorious when Pembina announced it had no intention to pursue the project.

Thanks to everyone who supported our successful effort to preserve our precious land!

For more details, see: https://westernlaw.org/jordan-cove-lng-terminal-pacific-connector-pipeline/

July 2020:

If you’ve been following our newsletters for the last fifteen years, you’ll recall that a Canadian fracked gas company, Pembina, wants to build a 230-mile long pipeline across southern Oregon. Called the Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline, it would pipe high pressure natural gas over two mountain ranges, from near Klamath Falls to Coos Bay. At a terminal that would be called Jordon Cove, the natural gas would be super-cooled to make LNG (liquefied natural gas) and put on enormous ships to Asia.

Since 2006 the pipeline was routed through Owl Farm, threatening us with eight acres of clearcuts through our loveliest, most hikable forests. But In 2017, after twelve years of fighting, Pembina rerouted the pipeline around Owl Farm - but not very far around. Their route puts explosive, high pressure gas near Owl Farm’s eastern boundary, close to the main house, our garden and well, and across our only road access.

The Trump Administration decided this March to give the go-ahead to the pipeline. However, the project can’t be built without critical permits from the State of Oregon. Three of those permits have already been denied or withdrawn!

Oregon Women’s Land Trust, along with other nonprofit organizations, filed a lawsuit on May 27, 2020. 

The lawsuit has been filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  We are challenging FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission). Our co-plaintiffs are 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, and Waterkeeper Alliance. We are being represented by the Sierra Club and Western Environmental Law Center.

We are challenging the federal government’s approval of the export terminal and pipeline. They failed to consider critical information about the project and that it is not in the public interest. Among other things, the government failed to consider climate risks. If completed, the project would be the highest greenhouse gas emitter in the state of Oregon.

Lawsuits have also been filed by the State of Oregon, Tribal governments, threatened landowners, and others.  Governor Kate Brown has pledged to use Oregon’s legal resources to defend the State’s authority to protect Oregonian’s safety, health and environment. The project consistently fails to meet state standards, so Oregon has the authority to deny permits under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and Coastal Zone Management Act.

OWLT has been fighting this project since 2005. We are now in the endgame. This lawsuit is expensive. Thank you for your donation.