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FERC to listen beyond deadline
By Elise Hamner, City Editor
Friday, July 21, 2006 | No comments posted.
The official comment deadline is July 24.
The unofficial deadline on the Jordan Cove Energy Project and Pacific Gas Connector Pipeline pre-scoping period leading up to the start of an environmental impact statement might be months away.
At the meeting of the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay commission Thursday night, port staff told the 65 or so people in the audience that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was extending its comment deadline for 30 days. And indeed, the U.S. Coast Guard would be taking comments longer, too; until Monday.
July 24 is the end date the U.S. Federal Register and FERC notices confirm for comments to help guide the Coast Guard's Waterway Suitability Assessment and FERC's massive environmental study.
“But FERC will accept and take into consideration all comments they receive up until the pre-filing date,” said Mike Gaul, the port's deputy director this morning.
Gaul said he was notified Thursday by Jordan Cove's Bob Braddock of the FERC pledge. And, the federal agency's project team leader Paul Friedman testified as such as part of the public meeting on July 11 in Coos Bay. But no official public notice will be published to push back that date, according to FERC officials.
That pre-filing date is likely to end in January 2007, when the formal application is filed, FERC spokeswoman Celeste Miller said this morning.
“We're on the record in meetings and other situations where we've said that they (the comments) will be taken into account,” Miller said.
FERC plans to start its research on the proposed projects September, when Jordan Cove is to file the project applications.
Lt. Shadrack Scheirman, with Coast Guard Sector Portland, who's coordinating his agency's study explained it this way: The comments for the scoping process - in which the agency defines the world of work for the applicant and the project - ends Monday.
But, “we can't stop listening just because the scoping period is over,” he said.
Those comments will be “placed in the formal document, but it's not part of the scoping record,” he added.
Once the draft EIS is released, local residents again will be able to offer their comments. And officials reiterated that, again, there will be another formal comment period when the final EIS is published.
The unofficial deadline on the Jordan Cove Energy Project and Pacific Gas Connector Pipeline pre-scoping period leading up to the start of an environmental impact statement might be months away.
At the meeting of the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay commission Thursday night, port staff told the 65 or so people in the audience that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was extending its comment deadline for 30 days. And indeed, the U.S. Coast Guard would be taking comments longer, too; until Monday.
July 24 is the end date the U.S. Federal Register and FERC notices confirm for comments to help guide the Coast Guard's Waterway Suitability Assessment and FERC's massive environmental study.
“But FERC will accept and take into consideration all comments they receive up until the pre-filing date,” said Mike Gaul, the port's deputy director this morning.
Gaul said he was notified Thursday by Jordan Cove's Bob Braddock of the FERC pledge. And, the federal agency's project team leader Paul Friedman testified as such as part of the public meeting on July 11 in Coos Bay. But no official public notice will be published to push back that date, according to FERC officials.
That pre-filing date is likely to end in January 2007, when the formal application is filed, FERC spokeswoman Celeste Miller said this morning.
“We're on the record in meetings and other situations where we've said that they (the comments) will be taken into account,” Miller said.
FERC plans to start its research on the proposed projects September, when Jordan Cove is to file the project applications.
Lt. Shadrack Scheirman, with Coast Guard Sector Portland, who's coordinating his agency's study explained it this way: The comments for the scoping process - in which the agency defines the world of work for the applicant and the project - ends Monday.
But, “we can't stop listening just because the scoping period is over,” he said.
Those comments will be “placed in the formal document, but it's not part of the scoping record,” he added.
Once the draft EIS is released, local residents again will be able to offer their comments. And officials reiterated that, again, there will be another formal comment period when the final EIS is published.
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