FERC denial of Oregon Jordan Cove LNG plant may protect Colorado River water supplies

Hi Friends of the Colorado River!

Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission “Denied” the application for a liquified natural gas plant (LNG) at Jordan Cove, Oregon.
See story: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-11/u-s-rejects-veresen-s-5-3-billion-jordan-cove-gas-export-plan
FERC document denial:  http://www.ferc.gov/CalendarFiles/20160311154932-CP13-483-000.pdf

The single biggest proposed threat to water supplies in the Southwest U.S. in the

Colorado River basin is a massive re-engineering project proposed for the Fontenelle Dam in Wyoming. The State wants to use the water — over 125,000 acre feet (40 billion gallons)/year — in part for “Energy Development” in the Southwest Wyoming oil/gas fields

“Additional Fontenelle water ‘most definitely’ could be used for an industrial complex that legislators and industrialists have dreamed of building in southwest Wyoming, water development director LaBonde said. Such a complex could use Green River water and southwest Wyoming’s other natural resources – trona, coal, helium, and natural gas — to add value to the state’s usual export of raw products.”
see High Country News story: https://www.hcn.org/articles/green-river-could-boost-industrial-complex-dream

Further, Senator Barrasso from Wyoming, had strongly urged FERC to approve the Jordan Cove LNG plant: http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2015/9/barrasso-final-jordan-cove-eis-great-news-for-rocky-mountain-natural-gas
And Senator Barrasso is the chief proponent and sponsor of a bill in the U.S. Senate to push forward the Fontenelle Dam expansion.

If the Jordan Cove LNG plant were built, it would have “cut nine days off of shipping time to Asian markets” for fracked gas in the massive gas fields of Southwestern Wyoming, as well as Western Colorado and Northeast Utah:
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/103923-jordan-cove-lng-viewed-as-market-outlet-by-western-colorado-producers

Therefore, stopping and slowing fracking in the Upper Basin States of the Colorado River (Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado) — which FERC just did by denying this LNG export terminal — will better protect water supplies for the entire Southwest U.S. from Denver to Los Angeles and Phoenix and beyond.

Yes, it is all tied together