In the Pacific Northwest, NW Natural Gas claims that the Palomar pipeline and Bradwood Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal will bring “clean” fuel to the United States. But the truth is the real impacts of LNG importation are enormous, and extend far beyond the Pacific Northwest. LNG threatens to harm Oregon’s economy and environment and the impacts of LNG are huge even before the fuel reaches Oregon’s shores. Far from being “clean”, the environmental and social impacts of the full LNG supply chain show LNG is a dirty, costly fuel. This is the second post of a series highlighting the global impacts of LNG, which strongly resemble the global impacts of oil production. Is LNG going to be “the new Foreign Fossil Fuel”?
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LNG in the Peruvian Amazon, by Nick Engelfried. 
When a violent police crackdown on non-violent indigenous rights activists in Peru left around 100 people dead, the human rights abuses of government-backed corporate ventures in the Amazon exploded into the concsiousness of the international community. Many factors – most notably implementation of the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement – contributed to the impasse which prompted 30,000 indigenous Peruvians to take non-violent direct action against seizure of their traditional lands for private profit. Yet when Peruvian police fired on protesters outside the city of Bagua, it was in some ways the predictable result of an economic model which has long shunted human rights and environmental concerns to the side while paving the way for industrial projects like LNG.
While the “Bagua massacre” cannot be linked directly to the LNG industry, what’s clear is that pro-industry policies in Peru have consistently put the needs of local people in the backseat while extracting the natural wealth of the Amazon for private gain. Oil, timber, and gas companies have all taken their toll on the Peruvian Amazon and its inhabitants, yet the situation is poised to get even worse. If companies like Northwest Natural get their way, LNG from the Peruvian Amazon could soon be headed by tanker straight for the Oregon coast – the fruit of industrial practices that are systematically destroying one of the most biologically and culturally diverse areas on the globe.
Gas at the Center of Amazon Destruction
The Camisea Gas Project in the southeastern Peruvian Amazon straddles some of the most biodiverse rainforest on the planet, including large sections of a reserve supposed to protect largely uncontacted indigenous tribes. Referred to by the environmental group Amazon Watch as “arguably the most damaging project in the Amazon Basin,” Camisea Gas is an extraction endeavor designed to pump gas from the Amazon through two massive pipelines that connect to the Peruvian coast. Despite assurances during the project’s construction that it would be built and operated in the most responsible manner possible, Camisea’s history has been rife with environmental and safety violations, with the original pipeline rupturing five times and undergoing three major spills during the first 18 months of operation alone.
One of Camisea’s pipelines is designed to deliver gas to the coast so it can be converted to LNG, and shipped to energy markets in North America. According to Business Monitor Online, the companies controlling the gas project hope to find a market for Peruvian LNG in the west coast of the United States. If Oregon’s Bradwood Landing LNG Terminal and the connecting Palomar Pipeline are built, it would open the doors of the US market to Peruvian LNG, putting still further pressure on the Amazon and its inhabitants.
Foreign Companies Benefit While Locals Suffer
Just as LNG projects in Oregon will largely benefit out-of-state companies and energy speculators, the Camisea Gas Project is owned mainly by transnational corporations with little or no interest in Peru’s environment and local economy. Major investors Camisea include European, Japanese, and South Korean corporations as well as Dallas-based Hunt Oil – a company with ties to Halliburton and the former Bush administration. Peru LNG, the LNG export facility connected with Camisea, is the biggest direct foreign investment project in the history of Peru. Half of the export operation is owned by Hunt Oil, the rest split between South Korean, Japanese, and Spanish companies.
Meanwhile local communities are suffering the effects of Camisea’s presence. For centuries the Machiguenga people have lived along the Urubumba and Camisea Rivers in southeast Peru, living by hunting and fishing in the forests that are now being destroyed by the Camisea Gas Project. Since the gas industry’s arrival in the area, the Machiguenga have suffered from illness and malnutrition caused in part by Camisea’s destruction of their natural heritage.
The Camisea Project has also broken Peruvian law by forcibly contacting Amazonian tribes like the Nahua which are attempting to live traditional lifestyles in voluntary isolation from the outside world. Intrusion into indigenous lands is not only disrespectful of the choice these peoples have made to live a traditional lifestyle, but carries a danger that the Nahua and others will be exposed to deadly disease.
Importing LNG in Oregon Will Put Further Pressure on the Amazon
The extraction-based economy ravaging the Peruvian Amazon thrives on transferring the natural resources of Peru’s forests to foreign markets – a bad deal for both the environment and Peru’s indigenous and rural communities. Today the main foreign market for Peruvian LNG is Mexico, and there are no LNG import facilities on the western coast of the United States. But the Palomar Pipeline, backed by Northwest Natural, is a critical piece in a proposed network of LNG pipelines and import terminals which would throw open the doors of the US market to LNG from Peru and other countries in western South America.
The people of Peru are already well aware of the impact extractive industries are having on their country’s forests, and the way major energy companies are invading indigenous lands. Since the Bagua massacre of last year, the protests against foreign companies that pilage the Amazon has only grown louder with mass demonstrations in Lima, Arequipa, Iquitos, and other Peruvian cities. Yet pro-industry policies like the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement will make it difficult to save Peru’s natural forests and biological riches without an international push to end destructive investment practices.
By rejecting LNG in this state, Oregon is perfectly positioned to tip the balance away from increased destruction in the Peruvian Amazon. California has already shut the door on LNG off its coasts, meaning the Pacific Northwest is the LNG industry’s last hope of penetrating the western US market. Oregon has a chance to say no to projects like Northwest Natural’s Palomar Pipeline. In so doing, we can stop a proposal that’s bad for Oregon, and bad for Peru as well.
[...] that would connect import centers to existing pipelines, sending gas shipped in from Russia, Peru, or the Middle East down to the California market. Students meet with farmer on 150 year old family [...]
[...] that would connect import centers to existing pipelines, sending gas shipped in from Russia, Peru, or the Middle East down to the California [...]