In Salem Wednesday, House Speaker Jeff Merkley, who is running for U.S. Senate, joined about 200 people protesting against any proposal to build a terminal for tankers bringing liquid natural gas to the Oregon coast. This could cost us all.

In Oregon hundreds of thousands of people depend on natural gas as their main source of heat in the home. Because it burns much cleaner than coal, natural gas has increasingly been used to fire generators meeting the growing demand for electrical power on the West Coast.

The gas industry says the only way to keep the price from soaring further for the next generation or so — until new forms of energy sources prove practical in a big way — is to import natural gas from outside sources, mainly Australia and Indonesia.

Without terminals for tankers to unload the stuff in liquid form, gas cannot be imported. Without the imports, the price will keep rising faster and many Oregon consumers will keep having to pay more.

So when Merkley is against LNG terminals in Oregon, he seems to accept that voters dependent on natural gas will keep paying higher prices.

That’s not exactly in the Democratic tradition of favoring the interests of working people. And his stand is worth keeping in mind when he runs this fall as the Democratic nominee. (hh)