Alaska Natural Gas Export Appeal Tests US Emission Baselines

The Department of Energy’s discretion in studying the climate impacts of its authorization to export liquid natural gas to countries that don’t have a free trade agreement with the US will come under fire at a federal appeals panel next week.

The Sierra Club, Earthjustice, and the Center for Biological Diversity must convince the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit during Oct. 21 oral arguments that the agency’s emissions baselines were useless estimates to determine the Alaska LNG Project’s long-term climate impact and effect on the public interest, as required under the Natural Gas Act.

Those baselines assumed ...