FERC denies Elba Island Liquefaction rehearing request

The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied Sierra Club’s request for rehearing of the order authorizing construction of the Elba Island export plant in Georgia. 

The two Kinder Morgan units Elba Liquefaction Company and Southern LNG Company have been authorized to site, construct, and operate new natural gas liquefaction and export facilities at Southern LNG’s existing terminal.

FERC has also authorized Elba Express Company to construct and operate the compression facilities in Hart, Jefferson, and Effingham Counties, Georgia to enable the existing Elba Express pipeline system to provide additional north-to-south transportation capacity.

Sierra Club filed a request for rehearing of the order, claiming that in its analysis, the commission ignored indirect effects related to upstream natural gas production, increased foreign use of natural gas, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their secondary effect and domestic gas-to-coal switching.

Sierra Club also asserts the commission’s cumulative effects analysis was flawed because it lacked analysis of these effects (natural gas production, GHG emissions, and domestic gas-to-coal switching) when combined with effects from other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable LNG export facilities.

In addition, in its request for rehearing, Sierra Club claimed the commission inadequately addressed issues related to the safety of the LNG storage tanks.

Kinder Morgan previously informed that the construction of the project will start on November 1, and the two units received authorization to begin the work related to the South Channel barge dock construction, including dredging and in-water pile driving.

Initial liquefaction units for the $2 billion project are expected to be placed in service in mid-2018, with the final units coming on line by early 2019, reaching total production capacity of 2.5 million tons per year.

Kinder Morgan said that the project is supported by a 20-year contract with Shell.

In 2012, the Elba liquefaction project received authorization from the Department of Energy to export to Free Trade Agreement (FTA) countries. An application to export to non-FTA countries is pending but is not required for the project to move ahead.

LNG World News Staff