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The struggle to droop authorization for the Rio Grande and Texas LNG export initiatives on the Gulf Coast is predicted to proceed in federal court docket after FERC’s choice late final month to disclaim requests for rehearings.
The Federal Power Regulatory Fee reapproved the 2 Texas liquefied pure fuel initiatives and the Rio Bravo pipeline earlier within the 12 months after the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered the Fee to evaluate its authorizations for the South Texas initiatives.
Late final month, Commissioners voted three to at least one in favor of denying requests from the Sierra Membership and a number of other different environmental teams for rehearings on the initiatives [Docket Nos. CP16-454-006; CP16-455-003; CP20-481-001].
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Sierra Membership Spokesperson Lindsay Stafford Mader advised NGI the coalition of teams intends to proceed pursuing motion towards the initiatives by means of the DC Circuit, the place challenges to Rio Grande LNG and Texas LNG are already pending.
“FERC’s Oct. 27 orders have been issued pursuant to a deadline the court docket set in our already-filed instances, and we shall be difficult these orders as a part of these present instances… ,” Stafford Mader stated.
In August 2021, the DC appeals court docket discovered FERC had not adequately defined its strategy in evaluating the potential impacts on local weather change and environmental justice (EJ) communities. The court docket’s choice got here in response to a petition for evaluate filed by venture opponents, together with the Sierra Membership and the Texas metropolis of Port Isabel.
In July, the Sierra Membership, Port Isabel and the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas filed one other lawsuit with the DC Circuit claiming FERC failed to guage the problems that induced the court docket to remand its choice within the first place.
NextDecade Corp. reached a ultimate funding choice on Rio Grande LNG in July after securing $18.4 billion in financing, making it one of the costly U.S. greenfield vitality initiatives to this point. The Houston-based agency broke floor on the 17.6 million metric tons/12 months (mmty) first part final month, and expects to ship the primary cargo from Brownsville, TX someday in early 2027.
The 4 mmty Texas LNG venture being developed by Glenfarne Power Transition LLC is unsanctioned. Glenfarne’s Adam Prestidge, head of authorized and company affairs, advised NGI final month that Texas LNG is nearing the tip of the preliminary engineering course of and information about offtake contracts could possibly be forthcoming.
Within the lone dissent to FERC’s rehearing choice, Commissioner Allison Clements agreed with the petitioners, writing that the Fee ought to have ready a supplemental environmental evaluation for the initiatives that tried to calculate the potential impacts of greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions related to the venture.
“The Fee’s failure to take action has left us with a essentially flawed file that can’t assist a public curiosity willpower for both venture,” Clements wrote.
In his concurrence, Commissioner Mark Christie stated FERC made the appropriate transfer in denying Sierra Membership’s request for a rehearing, however didn’t go far sufficient in pushing again towards the demand to make use of a calculation of the “social price” of GHG.
“On remand, the court docket directed us both to make use of the social price of GHG, or another ‘scientifically accepted’ measurement, or to elucidate why we’re declining to take action,” Christie wrote. “The order accurately notes that, because the Fee has defined beforehand, the social price of GHG assemble will not be helpful for evaluating project-level emissions.”
The publish Environmental Teams Look to Resume Battle Towards Rio Grande LNG, Texas LNG Via DC Circuit appeared first on Pure Gasoline Intelligence
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