June 3, 2020 3:20 a.m.
Opponents of the Pacific Connector Pipeline and the Jordan Cove Energy Project have won in court and will be able see landowner lists submitted by the pipeline company to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The Freedom of Information Act request was initially submitted in January of 2019 on behalf of a landowner’s group.
Judge Anne Aiken made her ruling in United States District Court last week.
Pipeline opponent Stacey McLaughlin said lists were compiled by Pacific Connector for the purpose of obtaining FERC’s authorization to take portions of the listed persons’ land and were filed as “confidential” in the FERC proceedings. McLaughlin claims that the lists are also submitted to identify all of the landowners along a pipeline route that “are to be put on notice” by the Pipeline of their rights during the FERC proceeding.
McLaughlin said FERC has an obligation to provide adequate notice of its proceedings such as potential impacts on landowners and the rights they have. She said in this case the agency delegated that duty to Pacific Connector.
Douglas County landowner Bill Gow said, “the fact that we have to sue FERC to obtain information that affects those of us impacted by the pipeline is another example of how FERC has rigged this process in favor of the gas company’s and against the landowners”.
The proposed project would create a 36-inch pipeline that crosses nearly 230 miles in four southwestern Oregon counties to transport natural gas to a Jordan Cove plant in Coos Bay.