Former President Bill Clinton spoke Monday about topics including health care, energy policy, the economy, and Liquefied Natural Gas.
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Clinton issues clear warning on LNG controversy During Astoria visit, former president describes past actions of FERC In his speech before hundreds of people gathered at the Columbia River Maritime Museum Monday, former President Bill Clinton presented his case for making Hillary Clinton the Democratic nominee for president.
Chief among his arguments was her stance on liquefied natural gas.
Hillary Clinton backers boast that she - unlike her Democratic rival Barack Obama and Republican nominee John McCain - voted against the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which took the power to site LNG terminals away from states and gave it to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
"It stripped you of the right to approve the siting of your own LNG facilities and that was wrong," Bill Clinton said Monday.
Two of the three LNG terminals proposed in Oregon are on the Columbia River. One is proposed for a site in Warrenton, and one 20 miles east of Astoria at Bradwood Landing.
On Monday, standing on the 17th Street dock along the Columbia River, Clinton said the projects would "burden you."
"Just look behind me," he said.
If all three LNG terminals are built, he said they would deliver "two and a half times as much liquefied natural gas as Oregon and Washington use every year."
The gas, he said, "will go wherever they want."
He himself witnessed the power of FERC to trump state powers as governor of Arkansas when a nuclear facility was sited in a neighboring state. The multi-state utility commission was "stripped" of the right to consider alternatives or assess environmental impacts.
"We had no say in it," he said. "We've been there."
Knowing what happens when "FERC takes control of your environmental and economic destiny," he said, Hillary Clinton voted against the 2005 energy bill, after an amendment failed in its attempt to hand siting authority back to the states.
"This is a very big deal to her, and I hope it's a big deal to you," said Bill Clinton. "Everybody who voted on that knew precisely what was in it because there was an early attempt to get it out, and she just said it's wrong."
Clinton also argued Hillary Clinton has the best energy policy, based on creating jobs around clean, independent energy sources.
He was on a three-day, 13-city tour through the state. He was to visited Tillamook, Newport, Corvallis and Eugene Monday before heading to Roseburg, Grants Pass and Klamath Falls on Tuesday.
