Federal Court Rejects Sierra Club Appeal of FERC Corpus Christi LNG Orders
Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a Judgment denying Sierra Club’s appeal of FERC’s orders approving the Corpus Christi Liquefaction LNG export project in Corpus Christi, Texas. Citing its opinion regarding the Freeport LNG terminal, the Court stated that regarding the indirect effects of natural gas exports on the environment, FERC’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis did not have to address the indirect effects of the anticipated export of natural gas because the Department of Energy, not FERC, has sole authority to license the export of any natural gas. As to the cumulative effects, FERC’s NEPA cumulative-impact analysis properly only considered the effect of the current project along with any other past, present or likely future actions in the same geographic area as the project under review. As to Sierra Club’s arguments regarding greenhouse gas emissions, the Court stated that it has already considered and rejected identical arguments relating to the social cost of carbon.