US Regulator Denies LNG Permitting Delays
The chairman of the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc), in a July 17 podcast, denied recent media reports that new LNG project applications would face permitting delays of 12 to 18 months.
In fact, Kevin McIntyre said, there is “good news” regarding the timing of new LNG applications.
“In just the last few days we have made truly significant strides in reforming the permitting process with our federal partners, eliminating duplicative efforts and instituting a streamlined procedure that will significantly reduce our LNG permitting timelines,” he said. “The details are still being hammered out, but we expect to have a formalized agreement in place in the coming days. I expect to be able to provide more detail on this soon.”
A day later, on July 19, McIntyre announced at the start of the commission’s regular meeting that Ferc and the US Department of Transportation’s Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) will develop a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that would refine and reduce the permit application review process for proposed LNG facilities.
The MOU will clarify each agency’s respective role in the permitting process for potential LNG projects, and implement procedures into Ferc’s authorisation process that will leverage PHMSA’s safety expertise to evaluate potential impacts to public safety. The signing of the MOU will be announced at a later date.
Two weeks ago, Bloomberg reported that a backlog of applications at Ferc was resulting in delays of 12 to 18 months for staff to prepare draft environmental reviews. In some cases, Ferc was hiring outside contractors to complete the reviews, and was asking applicants to pay for those contractors, Bloomberg reported.
In the past six months, Ferc has issued revised notices of schedule for two projects, and one schedule for a greenfield LNG project that is subject to the Fast-41 process, McIntyre said.
Fast-41 is part of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, which was enacted in 2015. Title 41 of the act is intended to improve early consultation and coordination among federal agencies, increase transparency through project-specific timetables for federal environmental reviews and authorisations and increase accountability for delayed projects.
“Ferc staff is very cognizant of the financial market impacts of its LNG project schedules,” McIntyre said. “Moreover, since we have been working diligently to streamline our permitting process and are still making significant strides in that direction, the release of any schedules to date would have been premature.
“For these reasons, among others, Ferc takes very seriously the schedules that it issues regarding these LNG projects,” McIntyre said. “To that end, we will not issue schedules until we have all the facts necessary and have implemented our improved processes to create accurate schedules.”