Oregon Public Broadcasting

The developers of a proposed Liquefied Natural Gas terminal in Coos Bay say a federal report out  Friday is good news.

In the filing, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says that the terminal’s environmental impacts can be successfully mitigated.

This is not the final approval – it’s just an environmental impact statement federal regulators will consider when looking at the project.

Martin Callery is the general manager of the Port of Coos Bay.

Martin Callery: “Yes there are going to be environmental impacts. But there are environmental impacts in anything we do. So if you go out and say here are the impacts, and here are proposed mitigations for those, then you have met the criteria laid out in the process.”

The filing also gave a environmental thumbs-up to a 230-mile pipeline across southern Oregon that would connect to the Coos Bay facility.

Pipeline and LNG critics say they were disappointed in the statement.

But critics say they hope the project will be rejected this summer, when the five members of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission take up the issue.