Liquefy This
Posted August 7, 2009 by roger_peet
Here's a slightly out-of-date flier I designed for Portland-area environmental group BARK and their campaign against the proposed Palomar pipeline, part of a massive network of interconnected energy development schemes slated to overrun the estuaries, forests, and farmlands of the Portland/Astoria/Mt.Hood/Columbia River region. It's all part of a plan to bring Liquefied Natural Gas to California via Oregon. Why via Oregon? Well, the politically savvy and comparatively wealthy Californians for whom the gas is intended have resolutely opposed and defeated all the proposed gas terminals on the California coast. Washington's done the same; the only one on the west coast so far is in Baja California. Less money, less power? That's why they're coming to Oregon! Two large LNG terminals are planned for the Oregon coast, one in the mouth of the Columbia near Astoria, and one in Coos Bay. Both will have massive impacts on local areas, requiring astronomical security provisions and ensuring some large measure of environmental destruction. Part of that destruction will be the pipelines that are slated to be laid through the forests of the region; the lush firs, spruce, hemlock and pine that make up the land's green mantle. Hundred foot wide permanent clearcuts? No problem? Tunneling under upwards of forty creeks and rivers? Okay! Destroyed farmlands, annihilated wildlife, industrial accidents? Yessssss! This is a wonderful example of capitalist strategy: there is, as yet, no large corporation involved in the planning of this. It's being executed by a gaggle of suits in a boardroom somewhere, drawing lines on a map and estimating cost-benefit ratios, growth projections, and flow potential. It is the rarefied atmosphere of infrastructural planning, cynically imposed on the land by economic analysts. Liquefied Natural Gas is popular all over (although not everyone is super enthused) and promises to bring us a warm, green, sustainable future where nothing ever goes wrong.
Comments
Great graphic too. Might be a cool stand-alone graphic to put up as a high-res download on the blog so that others struggling with LNA or any pipeline issues could use it....
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Oh and also, the area around Astoria (one of the potential terminals) is one of the most seismically active areas of the state!
Posted by: icky at August 7, 2009 10:30 AM