APGA opposes Emera CNG export application

APGA filed a motion to intervene in protest of an application by Emera CNG to export approximately 9.125 Bcf/year of CNG by tanker to free trade agreement (FTA) and non-FTA countries from a planned natural gas compression and loading facility to be located within the Port of Palm Beach, Florida.

To date, the Department of Energy (DOE) has received over 40 applications to export domestic LNG from the contiguous United States to FTA or non-FTA nations. The total export capacity applied for to date is 39.31 Bcf/day and 35.95 Bcf/day to FTA and non-FTA nations, respectively.

In its comments, APGA communicates that the exports proposed under this application will “increase domestic natural gas prices, burdening households and jeopardizing potential growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector, as well as the nation’s transition away from more environmentally damaging fossil fuels.”

The comments also state that given DOE’s request to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) to update its LNG export study to include higher export base case scenarios, the current studies which DOE bases its application review no longer provide a reliable record that permit an appropriate determination of whether a natural gas export application is in the public interest. APGA further argues that consideration of this and other export applications should be suspended until those studies are complete. The previous EIA study utilized a high base case scenario of 12 Bcf/day. On May 29, DOE requested that EIA update its study of LNG exports to include exports of 12 Bcf/day, 16 Bcf/day, and 20 Bcf/day. DOE also requested that EIA update its modeling analysis to include Annual Energy Outlook 2014 data as its starting point rather than the 2011 data used in the previous study.

Press Release, September 8, 2014; Image: APGA