A federal appeals court is considering whether to toss approvals for a pair of pipelines that would carry fuel to a planned liquefied natural gas terminal in southwestern Louisiana.
Three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asked few questions and did not clearly show their hand in a hearing Tuesday, as environmental groups made their case against authorization for Lines 200 and 300. The pipes would be the primary sources of gas to the Driftwood LNG export terminal until developers can complete a mainline pipeline.
The case is the latest before the D.C. Circuit to question the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s rationale for authorizing new gas projects. The court has recently issued a string of decisions directing FERC to either revamp or start over its review of LNG and gas pipeline projects, as well as revisit how the commission accounts for climate risks.
But Senior Judge A. Raymond Randolph on Tuesday expressed skepticism of the entire exercise of tracking projects’ greenhouse gas emissions.
