The Skipanon River in Warrenton, Oregon

The Warrenton LNG Fight: How a Decade-Long Energy Proposal Ended on the Columbia

ByDana Whitcomb

Photo: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

For more than a decade, one of the biggest fights over the North Coast’s future centered on a sandy peninsula in Warrenton. Developers proposed building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal there, along with a pipeline across Clatsop County. The fight drew in county commissioners, state land-use courts, federal regulators, fishermen, landowners and environmental groups.

The proposal

In the mid-2000s, Oregon LNG proposed a terminal on the East Skipanon Peninsula, where the Skipanon River meets the Columbia. It was first pitched to import LNG and later revised to export it. A related company, Oregon Pipeline Company, sought approval for a pipeline from the terminal through Clatsop County and beyond to connect with the regional gas system.

Supporters pointed to construction jobs, property-tax revenue and a deep-water industrial use for the site. Opponents raised concerns about public safety near homes, tanker traffic on the Columbia River bar, the effects of dredging and construction on salmon habitat and the estuary, the pipeline’s route across private land and forests, and the climate impacts of gas exports.

The county’s role

Under Oregon land-use law, the parts of the pipeline in unincorporated Clatsop County needed county land-use approval. The application, filed in 2009, went through years of hearings, reversals and legal disputes. In November 2010, the Board of Commissioners approved it. In January 2011, after three new commissioners took office, the board voted to withdraw that approval for reconsideration. The developer challenged the county’s authority to do that; the Oregon Court of Appeals sided with the county in 2012, and the Oregon Supreme Court declined to review the case in 2013. The board then held a public hearing in Astoria on October 9, 2013, voted unanimously to deny the application, and made the denial final on October 16. The Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) later reviewed the denial on appeal.

The process showed how much power county land-use rules can have over a project that is also under federal review, and how long a contested application can take.

The federal review

LNG terminals and interstate pipelines are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Exports also need approval from the U.S. Department of Energy. Federal agencies reviewed the Warrenton proposal for years, including its environmental impact statement and the effects on endangered fish under the Endangered Species Act. State agencies weighed in on water quality and coastal zone consistency.

How it ended

In 2016, the project’s backers said they were abandoning the Warrenton proposal. They cited the long regulatory process, market conditions and the need for state and local permits they hadn’t secured. FERC then closed the case. The peninsula wasn’t developed for LNG.

What it means for future projects

The Warrenton fight is still a reference point when North Coast communities consider large industrial proposals. It shows that:

  • County comprehensive plans and zoning can decide whether a project goes forward.
  • Public testimony and written records at the local level matter in later appeals.
  • Federal approval alone isn’t enough when state permits, such as Clean Water Act certification and coastal zone consistency reviews, are still required.

To follow current land-use cases, see our guide to how the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners works.

Sources: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Oregon LNG and Oregon Pipeline dockets; Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals decisions; Clatsop County Community Development; U.S. Department of Energy, LNG export applications.

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