FERC will need to reassess the certificate it issued in 2022 for Commonwealth LNG’s export facility near Cameron, Louisiana.022 for Commonwealth LNG’s export facility near Cameron, Louisiana. It also marks the latest ruling from the court calling on FERC to better explain its approach to greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on the environment.
The D.C. Circuit also rejected a claim by environmental groups that FERC did not adequately consider alternatives to the project.
Details: The court said the commission failed to explain why it did not use its shelved LNG policy statement or the social cost of carbon to determine the impact of the Commonwealth facility’s estimated 3.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year on the environment.
Specifically, the commission did not explain its departure from the 2021 decision on the Northern Natural Gas Co. project, which for the first time included an official assessment of an LNG project’s downstream greenhouse gas impacts.
“[W]hat matters for purposes of our review is that the Commission did not offer any explanation at all for not factoring in Northern Natural’s mode of analysis. Because the Commission neglected to address whether and why its order in Northern Natural is distinguishable, we remand for it to do so,” the court wrote.
The D.C. Circuit also found FERC failed to consider the cumulative effects of the project’s NO2 emissions, instead relying on its finding that the incremental emissions were not significant. The court said FERC must either explain why its analysis of the incremental NO2 emissions is consistent with an adequate cumulative effects analysis, or completely redo its analysis on those effects.
Environmental groups had also argued FERC failed to assess three possible alternatives to the LNG project that would have had a lower emissions impact: using a more efficient power plant to run the facility, eliminating one of the six proposed LNG storage tanks, or mandating carbon capture and sequestration.
The court found FERC’s analysis of the three alternatives was sufficient.
Commonwealth LNG is scheduled to begin building the facility, which is expected to be capable of exporting 9.5 million tons of fuel per year, by 2025. LNG exports are projected to start by 2028.
The LNG company and attorneys for the Sierra Club did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A FERC spokesperson declined to comment.
