Voters in Coos County rejected a ballot measure Tuesday that would have banned the controversial Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas export terminal and its 231-mile feeder pipeline.
Measure 6-162, titled the Coos County Right to Sustainable Energy Future Ordinance, did not mention Jordan Cove specifically. But it took direct aim at the proposed Coos Bay terminal and pipeline by banning the development of "non-sustainable energy systems" and the bulk transportation of fossil fuels in the county.
Jordan Cove and its parent company, Calgary-based Veresen Inc., have spent the past dozen years and hundreds of millions of dollars trying to win approval for the project. Their application was rejected by federal regulators last year, but the company reapplied in January in hope that a fossil-fuel friendly Trump Administration could help them get a green light.
In the meantime, Jordan Cove donated an unprecedented $600,000 on the campaign to defeat the ballot measure, blanketing the county with television, radio and newspaper ads against the initiative. In an effort to win over the counties 41,000 registered voters, they spent 50 times as much as the yes campaign's $12,000.
The ballot measure was broadly written, and in the opinion of many observers, likely unconstitutional. County commissioners said they were reluctant to spend any taxpayer money defending it if passed, as they considered the measure illegal.
Even some of the most prominent opponents of Jordan Cove opposed the measure, as they felt it was too broad and potentially unconstitutional.
The Jordan Cove terminal and Pacific Connector pipeline are designed to pipe natural gas from Canada and the Western United States onto the North Spit of Coos Bay, super-chill it into a liquid, and load it aboard tankers for shipment to customers in Asia. Backers say it could be at least a $7.5 billion construction project, with thousands of construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs at the terminal.