Sen. Jeff Merkley abandoned his tepid support of the Jordan Cove Energy Project this week, setting off a political fracas over the controversial proposal to build a massive natural gas export terminal in Coos Bay and a feeder pipeline stretching across southern Oregon.

Merkley doesn't hold much sway in the regulatory process for the $8 billion project, which backers tout as the largest infrastructure project in Oregon history and major job creator. But he has been buffing his environmental credentials for some time, and he becomes the only member of Oregon's congressional delegation to express outright opposition to the project.

His new position was immediately applauded by environmental groups, who are now calling on Gov. Kate Brown to join Merkley in opposition. Brown has remained neutral on the project, which is a favorite of the building trades, another important constituency of the Democrats. Her office claims she has no real authority over the decision, and is only serving as a referee to make sure the process is fair.

Merkley's opposition also comes amid strong support for the project from the Trump administration. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has jurisdiction over siting new liquefied natural gas terminals, and Trump has remade the commission since 2016, when commissioners rejected Jordan Cove's last application. The new commissioners are widely seen as pro-industry based on their past statements, and Jordan Cove officials have said they like their prospects under the new administration and commission.

The project cannot go forward without a number of state permits, however, which makes Brown an important player. Her silence has frustrated opponents of the project, who say it's a hypocritical stance given her own increasingly forceful statements on global warming and the need to regulate carbon emissions. Backers of the project are also anxious to see her weigh in.

Brown's presumed opponent in next year's gubernatorial election, state Rep. Knute Buehler, R-Bend, tried to make political hay out of Merkley's new stance.

"Governor Brown needs to stop dodging whether she supports the long-delayed energy terminal in Coos County and will approve all necessary state permits," Buehler said Friday in a news release.

"As governor, I will. The people of the South Coast want and need leadership for this job-creating, revenue-generating project at Jordan Cove."

A number of Southern Oregon legislators also sent out their own news release: "A $10 billion Intel-sized investment such as this will pay dividends to the region for a generation. The positive benefits of this project will ripple across Southern Oregon, and help revitalize a part of our beautiful state that has been economically stagnating for decades."

A spokesman for the governor, Bryan Hockaday, said Friday that the approval of the project was ultimately up to federal regulators.

"Governor Brown's role is to make sure the application is considered fairly when state agencies are involved and to ensure the voices of Oregonians are taken into account throughout the review process," Hockaday said. "Just as the state cannot green light this process, it cannot red light it either."

In fact, experts say the state has the authority to reject the project. But the brouhaha highlights the dangerous political shoals lurking beneath. Few politicians or aspirants want to take a stance against a project that offers new jobs and tax revenues to rural Oregon in general or Coos County in particular.

At the same time, there is virulent opposition to the project among environmentalists and property owners in the path of the proposed pipeline, who span the political spectrum.

Jim Moore, a Pacific University political science professor, said Merkley, who isn't up for re-election until 2020, had little to lose politically. "He's safe because he's a senator and they don't come up before the people very often. It's not going to move that many votes."

Merkley's office said he was unavailable for comment. And he only unveiled his new position in a letter to the Medford Mail Tribune, taking pains to say it was a tough call.

He said the project still had many compelling benefits, including jobs and increased property taxes. But he said the climate impacts of the facility were too big to ignore, and the company would still need to exercise eminent domain to garner the pipeline rights of way from landowners opposed to the project.

When operational, the terminal would become the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the state.

It's still far from clear the project will move forward. It was rejected by federal regulators in 2016 because its backers hadn't demonstrated sufficient need for the facility to overcome the negative impacts on landowners affected by the pipeline. The owner, Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Corp. is still trying to secure binding commitments for the terminal's capacity, while developers elsewhere have abandoned LNG proposals because of insufficient demand.

Last month, the Oregon's Land Use Board of Appeals rejected Coos County's land use approval of the project, remanding it back to the county for further consideration.

The Department of Geology and Mineral Industries weighed in last week with a stinging critique of the company's analysis of its earthquake and tsunami preparedness. And the Department of State Lands notified the company last week that its application for a removal fill permit was incomplete.

The company did not return calls for comment Friday, but has downplayed those decisions, saying they expect to satisfy all the demands of federal, state and local regulators.

- Ted Sickinger

tsickinger@oregonian.com

503-221-8505; @tedsickinger

This post has been edited to reflect the following correction: Knute Buehler is an Oregon state represenative. An earlier version of this story misstated his political office.