To find out how much money your legislator has taken from NW Natural click here.

Within the next few weeks your State Senator and Representative may vote on the reintroduced LNG Fast Track Bill. This bill would undermine landowners’ rights and streamline the permitting process for companies like NW Natural to build LNG-related pipelines in Oregon.

In the last legislative session this bill was stopped in the Senate amidst a swarm of controversy, including NW Natural’s massive campaign contributions to Oregon’s elected officials. But, NW Natural has a vested interest in the passage of this bill to fast-track their proposed Palomar Pipeline and they are using their political sway to push the bill forward in the special session.

According to the Oregonian,

Since the beginning of last year’s election cycle, LNG supporters have marinated lawmakers with cash contributions…To ensure the company [NW Natural] is heard in the Legislature, it spent about $210,000 on campaign contributions since the beginning of 2008.

NW Natural should not be able to influence legislation and wield their economic power in Oregon state politics at the expense of Oregon farmers, foresters, and even their own customers. Follow the link below to find out how much money your legislator has taken from NW Natural, and then demand your legislators represent the best interest of the Oregon public when they vote on this bill.

Send a message to Salem leadership reminding them to represent you and other Oregonians, not the special interests of the powerful gas lobby.

Even if your private property isn’t affected by the Palomar pipeline, your public lands, watersheds and forests are impacted, and should have a say in NW Natural’s activities. As one NW Natural customer commented,

Regardless of how you stand on the LNG issue, the fact that jumped out at me is a monopoly utility (NW Natural) is using my ratepayer money to lobby my state legislator on issues potentially against my interests. And I have absolutely no say because I need to use natural gas in my home and I have no other choice but to use NW Natural.

You can have a say. Don’t allow this special session to be commandeered by NW Natural’s self-serving agenda. Send a message to your legislators now.

If the link does not work for you, copy and paste this link into your address bar: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1810/t/10427/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=28168

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at 10:41 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.