A new startup is seeking to revive the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas export terminal and its 230-mile pipeline in Southern Oregon.

Developers abandoned plans for the controversial terminal and Pacific Connector Pipeline in 2021 after failing to secure necessary state permits. The $10 billion project, at the time backed by Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Corp., was met with 17 years of opposition from landowners, environmental groups and tribes citing health and safety risks and impacts to climate change and the environment, among others.

The project would have involved creating a 36-inch pipeline crossing four southwestern Oregon counties to transport natural gas to a Jordan Cove liquefaction plant in Coos Bay. From there, the gas would have been loaded onto ships for export to Asian markets.

Earlier this week, Arizona-based OA Partners LLC filed a petition with the The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to retroactively force the approval of Jordan Cove. The group bills itself online as “America’s newest LNG Transportation Company” and cites President Donald Trump’s executive order and “America First” investment policy as its guiding light.

Mark Kekkonen, a managing member of OA Partners who filed the petition, told The Oregonian/OregonLive his firm had no revenue nor financial backers and he plans to engage Oregon tribes — who have opposed Jordan Cove for years — to build and manage the project.

In January, the Trump administration ended a Biden-era liquefied natural gas pause, reviving a controversial sector that opponents say locks in the use of fracking and greenhouse gas-producing fossil fuel use for decades.

OA Partners LLC seeks to assert federal authority over the Jordan Cove project, declaring Oregon’s permit denials unlawful under federal law. It seeks to waive Oregon’s Clean Water Act certification requirements, the state Coastal Zone Management Act determination and Oregon Department of State Lands removal-fill permit requirements.

Those denials, the petition claims, are unlawful and contradict the intent of Executive Order 14111 issued by Trump. The order seeks to reinforce the importance of, and strengthen, the security of executive branch federal facilities.

Environmental groups and local landowners said the attempt to revive Jordan Cove has no merit and called it “an absurd nothingburger.”

“This is an attempt to cause panic for South Coast community members and people across the state who fought to shut down this pipeline. Our communities are ready to take a stance against any attempts to revive Jordan Cove LNG,” said Ashley Audycki, the south coast coordinator for climate justice organization Rogue Climate.

“After decades of saying no to LNG exports, community members won’t be fooled—we are looking to say yes to real economic solutions that promote a just transition to a regenerative energy future,” Audycki said.