Economic Analysis Gives Southern Oregon Natural Gas Project a Boost

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): A proposed natural gas pipeline would generate more than $5.3 million annually in property taxes in Jackson County and employ an estimated 203 people in the county during construction, according to information on the economic impacts of the project.

The Portland-based economic analysis firm ECONorthwest prepared a report on the economic impacts of the project for Jordan Cove LNG, a branch of the Canadian-headquartered company Pembina that is proposing the project. A 229-mile, 3-foot-diameter underground pipeline would be built across Klamath, Jackson, Douglas and Coos counties to carry natural gas to a proposed export facility north of Coos Bay.

Construction spending for the project is projected at $9.8 billion, according to the ECONorthwest report.

Of that, $2.88 billion would be spent directly at Oregon businesses and $1.5 billion would go to Oregon workers, the report said.

“It’s just a phenomenally large amount,” said ECONorthwest Director Robert Whelan, an economist who worked on the report.

The project is easily the largest of its kind in Oregon history, he said. The gross domestic product of the multiyear project equals nearly half a year of the total GDP for the whole construction sector in Oregon, the report said.

The cost of the project is more than the total construction cost for all the factories, warehouses, natural gas and communications infrastructure projects, power plants and labs built in Oregon from 2000 to 2016, the report said.

“The magnitude of the project is unprecedented in Oregon,” the report said.

The $5.3 million the project would pay in Jackson County property taxes would make it the county’s biggest taxpayer. The same would be true in Douglas, Klamath and Coos counties, according to Pembina spokesman Paul Vogel.

The company would pay taxes on the export facility and the pipeline asset.

 Courtesy: www.bendbulletin.com