Since 2004, the Bay Area has been mired in a debate about a dangerous liquefied natural gas facility and pipeline. Meanwhile, other Oregon communities have successfully brought in another sector of the energy industry that is creating thousands of well-paying, secure, permanent jobs. While we’re busy arguing about whether or not to bring in a dinosaur industry, the rest of our state is attracting the jobs of the future.

Jody McCaffree, In My View

The Jordan Cove LNG plant will cost our economy dearly. There’s the threat of eminent domain on 151 miles of private property, as well as the destruction of salmon-bearing streams, oyster beds, fish habitats, farm and forest lands, among other negative business impacts. Local businesses such as Clausen Oysters, Kentuck Golf Course, Coos County Sheep Co. will be negatively impacted by this proposal.

It turns out that LNG is a bad investment of Enron-like proportions. Two LNG terminals built on the Gulf Coast just went online, long enough to fill their storage tanks. Now, it turns out, no one wants to buy this overpriced foreign gas. America has its own 60- to 100-year supply, and local utilities and other customers can get domestic natural gas much cheaper.

Cheniere LNG laid off 200 workers and is trying to re-sell their LNG on the world market. Meanwhile, BP just announced a halt in a proposed terminal in New Jersey, stating that for the foreseeable future, LNG is not a viable possibility. Even if the Jordan Cove LNG project is ever permitted, it may never be built.

Meanwhile, other parts of Oregon are attracting thousands of new stable, secure jobs in a booming industry. Unlike LNG, industries such as solar, wind and other renewables are growing quickly.

The city of Hillsboro successfully attracted Solar World, a German solar manufacturer that opened North America’s largest solar cell manufacturing plant that will create 1,000 new jobs. Vestas, the world’s top turbine maker, employs more than 300 in Portland and is adding another 200. Other companies moving to Oregon include Peak Sun Silicon, Sanyo Solar, the California-based Solaicx and XSunX, and Horizon Wind.  Rogue River Wind in collaboration with Portland State University has developed a radical new wind turbine, which has the potential to provide long-term family wage manufacturing, installation and maintenance jobs. 

That Oregon is attracting all of this business is no accident. Our state has a business energy tax credit, which covers up to 50 percent of the cost of a clean energy project. In addition, the recent federal bailout of the financial industry extended the production tax credit, another incentive to develop clean energy. On top of that, we are just to the north of California, one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for renewable energy.

Where have our city councils, our port commission, the South Coast Development Council and our county commission been while the rest of the state has been creating stable, permanent jobs? Is an LNG terminal — something that will endanger homes, businesses and schools, and make us dependent on foreign energy — really the best they can come up with?

The clean energy boom is just beginning. It would behoove them to visit some of these communities and companies that are transforming Oregon into a clean energy hub.

(Jody McCaffree is chairwoman of the Citizens Against LNG and an activist for energy independence.)