Political Quotes

“along with Senator Clinton, Senator Lieberman, and Senator Dodd, I am introducing legislation that will correct a fundamental wrong perpetrated in the 2005 that allowed Federal bureaucracy to override local control by placing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the primary role of siting Liquified Natural Gas, LNG, terminals. That action, taken in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, took what had historically always been a state government responsibility--the permitting of LNG storage terminals--and handed it off to a Federal agency in Washington, DC--FERC. At the time, 45 Senators went on record saying that cutting State siting agencies out of the LNG siting process was a bad idea and the history of FERC's actions since then have borne us out. Right now, in Oregon, we have three separate LNG proposals pending before FERC. Together, they would have a combined capacity of 3.3 billion cubic feet, BCF, of gas per day. Oregon and Washington, together, only use 1.33 BCF per day. Yet, FERC categorically refuses to address the basic question of whether the three proposed facilities are even needed to serve our market. FERC also refuses to consider whether any of the three publicly announced interstate pipeline proposals to bring natural gas to Oregon from the Rocky Mountains would be a better option. In fact, FERC asserts that it's not its job to determine which, if any, of these proposals best serves our market.”