DOE Denies Rehearing of Orders Authorizing Corpus Christi Liquefaction and Sabine Pass Non-FTA Exports
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued two orders denying Sierra Club’s requests for rehearing of DOE orders which authorized: (1) Cheniere Marketing, LLC and Corpus Christi Liquefaction, LLC (CCL) to export LNG to nations without a Free Trade Agreement (non-FTA) from CCL’s proposed LNG terminal near Corpus Christi, Texas; and (2) Sabine Pass Liquefaction to export LNG to non-FTA nations from the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, La. In both orders, DOE rejected Sierra Club’s arguments that (1) the Natural Gas Act does not create a rebuttable presumption that natural gas exports are in the public interest, (2) DOE did not adequately consider the environmental effects of potential induced gas production caused by increased gas exports, and (3) DOE’s economic benefits assessment of increased gas exports was erroneous.