error: C compiler cannot create executables when compiling CFOUR with Portland compiler

Question

The command I am trying to run is

FC=pgf90 CC=pgcc MPIFC=mpif90 ./configure 
--prefix=/data/share/cfour_mpi --enable-mpi=openmpi --with-mpirun="mpirun 
-np \$CFOUR_NUM_CORES" --with-exenodes="mpirun -np \$CFOUR_NUM_CORES"

And the error I receive is this

checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking for GNU make... make
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for ld... ld
checking for ar... ar
checking for strip... strip
checking for etags... no
checking for ctags... no
checking whether the C compiler works... no
configure: error: in `/home/shelton/cfour':
configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
See `config.log' for more details

I can provide the config.log if necessary but it hasn't helped me make any sense of what is happening