FERC Denies Rehearing and Stay of Order Approving Dominion Cove Point LNG Export Project
Yesterday, FERC issued an order denying requests for rehearing and motions for stay of its order approving Dominion Cove Point LNG’s (DCP) export terminal project in Lusby, Md. FERC denied BP Energy’s (BP) request for rehearing, which argued that BP was unduly discriminated against by DCP because BP was not offered the same opportunity to turnback its DCP terminal capacity as DCP offered to Statoil Natural Gas (Statoil). FERC reaffirmed its finding that the Natural Gas Act (NGA) section 7 open access terminal services provided to BP are distinguishable from the NGA section 3 non-open access terminal services provided to Statoil. Thus BP and Statoil are not similarly situated and, therefore, there was no unduly discriminatory behavior by DCP. Among other things, FERC also denied several environmental groups’ allegations that FERC’s environmental review of the project was inadequate because it did not address the potential for increased gas production induced by the project. Lastly, FERC determined that since it was now acting on the requests for rehearing and there is no pending judicial appeal, the motions for stay are moot.