The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) acted properly and conducted all needed reviews when it approved Kinder Morgan’s Evangeline Pass Expansion Project, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled Apr. 30.
The three-judge panel unanimously rejected a Sierra Club claim that FERC failed to consider how the project — two small pipeline expansions, two new compressor stations and modifications to existing systems in Louisiana and Mississippi — could contribute to global climate change.
Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., a Kinder Morgan Inc. subsidiary, and Southern Natural Gas Co. sought approval for the 2-million dekatherms/day Evangeline Pass Expansion Project in 2020.
The project will provide added gas to Venture Global Inc.’s 20-million tonne/year (tpy) Plaquemines LNG plant on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana.
The Sierra Club argued that FERC violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it segmented its analysis of Evangeline Pass' environmental impact from four independently developed projects — Plaquemines LNG, the plant’s amendment to increase its gas-export capacity, a new pipeline that serves as a hub for the terminal, and two new pipelines that would connect to that hub.
The projects are part of a vast expansion of the LNG export market, particularly along the Gulf Coast. The US became the world’s largest LNG exporter last year, sending overseas an average of 11.9 bcfd (OGJ Online, Apr. 2, 2024). Exports are forecasted to expand by 9.7 bcfd by the end of the decade as four LNG plants, approved and currently under construction, come online (OGJ Online, Jan. 30, 2024).
The Sierra Club said the LNG expansion will exacerbate climate change by increasing emissions. FERC should have treated the projects as “connected actions” and evaluated their combined environmental impacts, the Sierra Club argued.
But the court disagreed, saying “FERC’s decision relied on the limits of its authority under the Natural Gas Act,” which “excludes authority over foreign transport.”
“In short, Congress gave export authorization to the Department of Energy — not FERC. So, FERC did not err when it declined to consider the environmental effects of exported gas that flows through Evangeline Pass,” the court ruled.
The Evangeline Pass expansion is currently under construction. Work on the Plaquemines LNG plant is also ongoing, with first shipments expected later this year.
