The Oregon Energy Facilities Siting Council will hold a public meeting in Coos Bay on Jan. 19 to answer questions about its process for considering a proposed liquid natural gas terminal on the North Spit.

The meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. at Coos Bay City Hall, will be the first formal opportunity for local residents to gather state input on the proposed terminal, a $150 million venture dubbed the Jordan Cove Energy Project.

"It's an opportunity for the public to find out what the proposal is and to find out what our process is like," said David Stewart-Smith, siting council secretary. "We'll always take comments, but that's not the overall purpose of this meeting. It's an informal opportunity to find out about the project."

Bob Braddock, project manager for the Colorado-based Energy Projects Development, said he will provide a brief presentation about the company's proposed terminal.

"We will focus on the physical elements of the project and the impacts we see it making," he said. "It's very much a black-and-white thing. It's a factual presentation."

LNG is natural gas frozen to negative 260 degrees Fahrenheit, so it takes up 600 times less space than in its vaporous state. According to the company, the proposed terminal could attract two ships per month, delivering natural gas to the North Spit, where it would be stored in a 120-foot-tall double-hulled storage tank.

The LNG would be vaporized and most of it is expected to be delivered into the new Coos County natural gas pipeline for use in southwest Oregon.

If approved, the project would be the smallest LNG import terminal operating in the United States.

In addition to the state's permitting process, Energy Projects Development will have to proceed with a federal approval through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Recently, though, questions have been raised about state's authority over permitting LNG facilities.

Language in a $388 billion spending bill presented just before Congress adjourned last month states that FERC has "exclusive jurisdiction" over LNG permits. It adds that a 1938 law pre-empts states on approving natural gas infrastructure "associated with interstate and foreign commerce."

California has been involved in a legal challenge with FERC over the ultimate authority for siting LNG facilities. That battle is pending in a federal court of appeals. Stewart-Smith said FERC officials have reassured him the agency would respect the state's process.

"I talked to FERC staff this week. They told me the same thing they told me several months ago. They're willing to work with the state of Oregon and they intend to be at the meeting in Coos Bay," Stewart-Smith said. "I'm still working on my assumption that an applicant for an LNG facility in Oregon will have to get a state permit and a federal permit."

Ultimately, questions about what would happen should the state and FERC disagree remain unanswered, Stewart-Smith said. The state has never before been presented with the question of permitting an import LNG terminal.

Energy Projects Development has not submitted any permit requests through FERC, although Braddock has said the company's representatives have met informally with federal agents. Braddock said the company is committed to following both state and federal processes, regardless of any recent issues about ultimate authority.

"It doesn't change anything," he said of the recent spending bill's assertions. "We still haven't filed with FERC and we haven't changed our approach one iota."

Stewart-Smith said the federal and state processes will overlap in some areas but that FERC will require Energy Projects Development to produce an Environmental Impact Statement analysis, something not required under Oregon's procedure.

The state's standard-based procedure will focus on land use laws as well as historical and cultural values.

"Whatever we have to do for FERC, the state is asking us to do," Braddock said. "We think the level of detail that FERC requires in terms of analytical review is equal to or greater than what's required by the state."

The project already has cleared some major hurdles since being announced in August. In September, the company came to terms with Roseburg Forest Products over the purchase of 90 acres at Jordan Cove.

Then, in late November, the company filed its Notice of Intent to apply for a building certificate from the state siting council. That filing initiated the public meeting process and will result in a project order, usually issued about 60 days following the meeting. That order will detail questions and public concerns the developer must address. It also will result in a detailed document that will address the proposal's safety and site geology.