Underground injections of millions of gallons of chemicals and water, called "fracking," have liberated massive amounts of cheap oil and natural gas in the US.
The oil and gas giants are chafing at the bit to freeze the natural gas and export it to Japan, Europe, and India as LNG (liquefied natural gas), where it sells for triple the US prices.
There are nearly two dozen pending applications to export the gas. Opening these export markets would vastly increase the demand for more gas, and that increased demand would trigger even more fracking, which is already causing severe air quality impacts, and many claims of water pollution.
The Sierra Club and others are fighting these gas export schemes. They are asking the regulatory agencies to require an environmental review of the increased fracking that would be triggered by gas exports, among other objections.
But the latest Sierra Club appeal against a gas export dock on these and other grounds may flounder for a gut-wrenching reason; it was filed 25 seconds too late.
The Sierra Club and its allies were objecting to the Cameron LNG export dock, about an hour south of Lake Charles Louisiana, and an hour east of Port Arthur, Texas. The Cheniere LNG export dock is already under construction down the road. A former Obama energy official, Heather Zichal, recently left the White House for a soft landing onto the Cheniere Board of Directors.
A half dozen other LNG export terminals are proposed nearby. If many of these LNG export terminals begin operations, you can expect your price for natural gas to increase. Many industries that rely on natural gas to power their equipment, or that use natural gas as a raw product, will also see their costs go up.
Some corporate giants, like Dow, object the gas exports for these reasons.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) conducts the federally-required environmental reviews of the LNG docks. However their scrutiny of these proposals has been uneven, with some placed under a microscope, while other, larger proposals skate by. The terminals consume massive amounts of energy, and require construction of a full-scale power plant, emitting thousands of tons of air pollution, just for that facility's needs.
The Sierra Club filed critical comments against the FERC review of the Cameron proposal, and then doubled down with a 16-page appeal, due within 30 days after the agency's decision.
But the LNG company alleged that FERC's time stamp showed the appeal was filed 25 seconds too late. The LNG company has filed to have the Sierra Club's appeal tossed out on that and other grounds. The company claimed that in the past, FERC has rejected appeals filed about one minute late.
One lesson is, if you are fighting a big project, be real careful to file your appeals well before the deadline. Don't give your adversaries any chance to defeat your appeal on technical grounds.
http://www.lnglawblog.com/...