Check your rhetoric at the door

Wednesday, July 22, 2009 |
Many months have passed since any politicians listened to local testimony about a liquefied natural gas terminal. People on both sides of the issue probably are yearning to be heard.
But before the Coos County commissioners open their public hearing on Thursday, let's take a moment to review what this hearing is not about.
It's not about tsunamis.
It's not about the hazards of handling LNG.
It's not about harbor safety, air pollution, terrorist attacks or the carbon footprint of gas-fired power generation.
It also isn't about how many jobs the terminal might create, how much property tax the terminal might pay, or other ways the terminal might aid or hurt the local economy.
Nor is it about whether Oregon (or America) needs imported natural gas.
No, it's not about any of those things. Rather, Oregon's Land Use Board of Appeals has directed the county to review three technical, rather arcane questions: wetlands preservation; protection of archaeological areas; and the applicability of county policies on wastewater discharge and foundation soils.
The hearing's narrow scope may disappoint some people. LNG inspires intense emotions, and some people on both sides are eager for a public soapbox. But federal law and federal officials, not local sentiment, will decide this issue.
County commissioners, as locally elected officials, presumably are sensitive to local viewpoints. In a land-use hearing, however, state law laces them into a "quasi-judicial" straitjacket. If they deviate from the prescribed process, LUBA will make them do it over until they get it right.
Everyone has a free-speech right to express opinions. But Thursday's hearing isn't the place for a freewheeling forum. Let's all check our impassioned rhetoric and tangential topics at the door.
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