FERC pens agreement to push forward pending LNG projects

The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has reached an agreement that could provide a path forward for consideration of LNG export terminals that were pending before the commission.

FERC said on Thursday that it applied a new approach for consideration of direct greenhouse gas emissions from LNG facilities in light of the commission awarding Venture Global LNG a regulatory permit to site, construct, and operate the Calcasieu Pass LNG export project in Louisiana.

FERC chairman Neil Chatterjee said, “Since I joined the Commission, it’s been a priority of mine to expedite and improve our LNG terminal application review process.”

“This is significant, as I anticipate we’ll be able to use the framework developed in this order to evaluate the other LNG certificates that the Commission is considering,” he said.

Chatterjee added that FERC’s multi-pronged approach to improve its process over the past year put the agency in a position to move forward efficiently with the other 12 pending LNG projects.

“We signed an MOU with the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, cut through unnecessary red tape and reduced inter-agency friction by signing the One Federal Decision MOU with our federal partners, and increased the number of engineers working on our reviews by casting a wide net to capture talent everywhere we could find it,” he said.