Court Affirms Freeport LNG Export Authority

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has denied Sierra Club’s challenge to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) orders approving LNG exports by Freeport LNG Expansion LP. According to the Law360 article, the court rejected Sierra Club’s argument that DOE did not tailor “its review of the indirect environmental effects of export-induced natural gas production — in particular, how such production might impact ozone concentration and water resources — to specific levels of exports or export-induced production.” The court “held that the DOE offered a solid explanation as to why those effects were not ‘reasonably foreseeable,’” and that “DOE’s determination that a model estimating localized impacts would be too speculative is ‘a product of its expertise in energy markets and is entitled to deference.’”

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