Authorizations for Certain Activities at Liquefied Natural Gas Plants

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY <SUBAGY>Federal Energy Regulatory Commission</SUBAGY> <CFR>18 CFR Parts 153, 157, and 380</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. RM26-2-000]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Authorizations for Certain Activities at Liquefied Natural Gas Plants</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of inquiry. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) seeks information and stakeholder perspectives to help the Commission explore whether, and if so how, to revise our Part 153, 157, and 380 regulations to establish procedures for authorizing activities at liquefied natural gas plants without case-specific authorization orders under sections 3 and 7 of the Natural Gas Act. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments are due January 26, 2026. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Comments, identified by docket number, may be filed in the following ways. Electronic filing through <E T="03">http://www.ferc.gov,</E> is preferred. • <E T="03">Electronic Filing:</E> Documents must be filed in acceptable native applications and print-to-PDF, but not in scanned or picture format. • For those unable to file electronically, comments may be filed by USPS mail or by hand (including courier) delivery. ○ <E T="03">Mail via US Postal Service Only:</E> Addressed to: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Secretary of the Commission, 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426. ○ <E T="03">Hand (Including Courier) Delivery:</E> Deliver to: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 12225 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville, MD 20852. The Comment Procedures Section of this document contains more detailed filing procedures. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Danielle Elefritz (Legal Information), Office of the General Counsel, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426, (202) 502-8767. Andrew Kohout (Technical Information), Office of Energy Projects, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426, (202) 502-8053. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> 1. In this notice of inquiry, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) seeks information and stakeholder perspectives to help the Commission explore whether, and if so how, to revise its Part 153, 157, and 380 regulations to establish procedures for authorizing activities at liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants  <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> without the need for case-specific authorization applications and orders under sections 3 or 7 of the Natural Gas Act (NGA). <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  LNG facilities make up the larger LNG plant. LNG plants include LNG terminals authorized under section 3 of the NGA. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Statutory Framework</HD> 2. The Commission regulates the siting, construction, expansion, and operation of LNG facilities pursuant to sections 3 and 7 of the NGA. Section 3(a) provides for federal jurisdiction over the siting, construction, expansion, and operation of facilities used to export or import natural gas. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> Section 3(e)(1) states that “[t]he Commission shall have the exclusive authority to approve or deny an application for the siting, construction, expansion, or operation of an LNG terminal.”  <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> And under section 7(c), the Commission issues certificates of public convenience and necessity for natural gas and LNG facilities used for the transportation of natural gas in interstate commerce. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> Under both section 3 and section 7, the Commission has the authority to include terms and conditions in any order authorizing an LNG facility. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  15 U.S.C. 717b(a). The 1977 Department of Energy (DOE) Organization Act (42 U.S.C. 7151(b)) placed all section 3 jurisdiction under DOE. The Secretary of Energy subsequently delegated authority to the Commission to “[a]pprove or disapprove the construction and operation of particular facilities, the site at which such facilities shall be located, and with respect to natural gas that involves the construction of new domestic facilities, the place of entry for imports or exit for exports.” DOE Delegation Order S1-DEL-FERC-2006, section 1.21A (May 16, 2006). <E T="03">See EarthReports, Inc.</E> v. <E T="03">FERC,</E> 828 F.3d 949, 952-53 (D.C. Cir. 2016) (detailing how regulatory oversight for the export of LNG and supporting facilities is divided between the Commission and DOE). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  15 U.S.C. 717b(e)(1). LNG terminal is defined as: “all natural gas facilities located onshore or in State waters that are used to receive, unload, load, store, transport, gasify, liquefy, or process natural gas that is imported to the United States . . . , exported to a foreign country . . . , or transported in interstate commerce by waterborne vessel, but does not include (A) waterborne vessels used to deliver natural gas to or from any such facility; or (B) any pipeline or storage facility subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission under [section 7].” <E T="03">Id.</E> 717a(11). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> 717f(c)(1)(A). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> 717b(a), 717b(e)(3), 717f(e). For a discussion of the Commission's authority to condition its approvals of LNG facilities under section 3 of the NGA, <E T="03">see, e.g., Distrigas Corp.</E> v. <E T="03">FPC,</E> 495 F.2d 1057, 1063-64 (D.C. Cir. 1974), <E T="03">cert. denied,</E> 419 U.S. 834 (1974); <E T="03">Dynegy LNG Prod. Terminal, L.P.,</E> 97 FERC ¶ 61,231 (2001). </FTNT> 3. The NGA also includes additional requirements that must be met prior to authorizing the construction of LNG terminals. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> Pursuant to section 3A(a) of the NGA, <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> the Commission promulgated regulations requiring LNG operators to use a pre-filing process for an application for authorization to construct or modify an LNG terminal. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> Section 3(f) requires that the Commission obtain the concurrence of the Secretary of War before authorizing the siting, construction, expansion, or operation of LNG facilities affecting the training or activities of an active military installation. <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> Section 3A(e) states that “[i]n any order authorizing an LNG terminal the Commission shall require the LNG terminal operator to develop an Emergency Response Plan [that] shall be prepared in consultation with the United States Coast Guard and State and local agencies and be approved by the Commission prior to any final approval to begin construction [and] shall include a cost-sharing plan.”  <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> The plan is to describe any direct cost reimbursements that the applicant will provide to state and local agencies responsible for safety and security at the LNG terminal and in proximity to vessels that serve the facility. <SU>11</SU> <FTREF/> Additionally, section 3A(c) allows states to provide a report on state and local safety considerations which “the Commission shall review and respond specifically to the issues raised . . . .”  <SU>12</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>  These requirements do not apply to NGA section 7 LNG facilities, including LNG peak shaving facilities which store gas in interstate commerce. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>  15 U.S.C. 717b-1(a). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>  18 CFR 157.21. The Commission's regulations allow for the Director of the Office of Energy Projects to waive the mandatory pre-filing procedures when prospective modifications to an existing LNG terminal do not involve significant state and local safety considerations that have not been previously addressed. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>  15 U.S.C. 717b(f). Pursuant to a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of War, the Commission issues a letter to the Department, which then responds indicating whether or not there are no or minimal impacts to military installations and operations. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>10</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> 717b-1(e). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>11</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>12</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> 717b-1(c). </FTNT> 4. Modifications to already-approved, operating LNG facilities may need to be undertaken during the life of the facilities. <SU>13</SU> <FTREF/> Such modifications may currently necessitate that the operator file a case-specific application, on which the Commission will make a public interest determination. <SU>14</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>13</SU>  LNG projects occurring during operation may include: safety system installations, existing equipment upgrades or replacements, emissions controls, system modifications to enable integration with non-jurisdictional activities (helium extraction or offsite carbon capture and sequestration), uprates, extra power generation, and new LNG trains, storage tanks, or loading berths. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>14</SU>  18 CFR part 153 (detailing the requirements for applications filed pursuant to section 3 of the NGA); 18 CFR part 157 (detailing the requirements for applications filed pursuant to section 7 of the NGA). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Existing Regulations for Authorizing Routine Activities Under Section 7</HD> 5. Under Part 157, Subpart F of the Commission's regulations, <SU>15</SU> <FTREF/> interstate pipelines that hold a certificate of public convenience and necessity under NGA section 7 may apply for a one-time blanket certificate to undertake, without a case-specific authorization, certain activities automatically, subject only to annual reporting requirements  <SU>16</SU> <FTREF/> and cer ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 37k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━