This article by Simon Davis-Cohen originally appeared in DeSmog Blog.

Scattered throughout Coos County, situated on Oregon’s southern coast, are signs reading “Save Coos Jobs, Vote No on County Measure 6-162.” The signs were put there by Save Coos Jobs, a political action committee (PAC) with more than $358,500 in funding from Canadian-based energy company Veresen’s Jordan Cove Energy Project and other natural gas interests.

Measure 6-162 will go to vote in a May 16 special election. If passed, it would block what could become Oregon’s top greenhouse gas emitter: Canadian energy company Veresen’s proposed multi-billion dollar Jordan Cove Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export facility and its associated 232 mile Pacific Connector gas pipeline.

Though the funding to defeat the “Coos County Right to Sustainable Energy Future Ordinance” is pouring in from out-of-state contributors and a PAC whose treasurer works for a government relations firm in Portland, Oregon, opponents have centered campaign messaging around fears that the measure could endanger “our community’s” economic future.

“If passed by voters,” Save Coos Jobs claims, “[the measure] would send a signal to the rest of Oregon and the world that Coos County is essentially ‘closed for business.’”

According to Jordan Cove LNG, the project would create 175 permanent jobs. Environmental impact statements have predicted slightly fewer, at 150, along with an estimated 2,000 temporary construction jobs.

Hans Radtke, a natural resource economist who has served on the Oregon governor’s Council of Economic Advisors since 1993, told DeSmog:

“These construction jobs tend to be very specialized — people move with the jobs. So you bring in people who have just been in the Dakotas. When you see these jobs come in, you see license plates from other states.”

While he acknowledged that the LNG project will support some local jobs such as in restaurants, he questioned the extent. “How much of that money is actually going to stay [in Coos County]?” Radtke asked. The permanent jobs created, he said, would be highly automated and consist substantially of security jobs.

“I would not put my money on this project being built,” he added. MORE…