Conservation Groups Challenge Alaska Natural Gas Export Approval

The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club are challenging the Energy Department’s authorization of an Alaska natural gas project to export liquefied natural gas to non-free trade agreement countries.

The proposed project would source gas from Alaska’s North Slope and include a gas treatment plant, an 800-mile-long pipeline to transport the gas, and a liquefaction facility, the groups said.

The environmental groups said in their Dec. 15 brief that the project would harm more than 8,000 acres of wetlands, increase the risk of vessel strikes on critically endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales, and emit millions of metric tons ...