Tag Archives: Free Trade

Strom Crystal River LNG export approval 2014-10-21

Strom can ramp up its LNG export to the Gulf from Crystal River an order of magnitude with its initial units, Legal Style and then add more units, all without any further approval by anybody, says this Order from the U.S. DoE Office of Fossil Energy, which also appears to permit bomb trains shipping LNG anywhere in Florida, or maybe even other states, with some of the fracked methane probably coming from Sabal Trail if built. This FE Order was issued 21 October 2014, one month to the day before Sabal Trail filed in the FERC formal process in 21 November 2014. Yet not a word was said about Strom or any other LNG export by FERC or Sabal Trail in any of the FERC Scoping Meetings I went to, as I pointed out at the one 1 October 2015 in Lake City, Florida.

FE is even more a rubberstamp regulatory-captured lapdog of the fossil fuel industry than is FERC, and Strom is setting up to require no further approvals by them or anybody else: Continue reading Strom Crystal River LNG export approval 2014-10-21

U.S. rejects Keystone XL: next let’s stop Sabal Trail!

Thanks to Bill McKibben and everyone else who made that pipeline an international cause. Now let’s stop Spectra’s Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail and keep Kinder Morgan’s Palmetto pipeline denied. And let’s stop the Trans-Pacific Parternership (TPP) before it can produce more “free trade” countries for LNG export.

Coral Davenport, New York Times, 6 November 2015, Obama Rejects Construction of Keystone XL Oil Pipeline,

President Obama’s denial of the proposed 1,179-mile pipeline, which would have carried 800,000 barrels a day of carbon-heavy petroleum from the Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast, comes as he is seeking to build an ambitious legacy on climate change.

“The pipeline would not make a meaningful longterm contribution to our economy,” Mr. Obama said in remarks from the White House.

The move was made ahead of Continue reading U.S. rejects Keystone XL: next let’s stop Sabal Trail!

LNG export to Europe with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)?

More “free trade” LNG export destinations from Florida will open up if the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) passes, to the 28 EU member countries:

Many of those countries currently get fracked gas from Russia:

Continue reading LNG export to Europe with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)?

Authority to Import and Export Gas by U.S. Department of Energy

Here’s a new way “entitled” fracking fossil fuel companies have gamed the system for LNG exports, currently to “Free Trade Agreement nations”, which will probably include India and China if the Trans-Pacific Parternship (TPP) gets approved. Even without exports, methane pipelines are to sell the “large amount of natural gas in the U.S.” produced by “the shale revolution”, which is fracking. The Sabal Trail pipeline isn’t about any alleged energy need in Florida. It’s about profits from fracking at the expense of your land.

Department of Energy notice 6 May 2013, Authority to Import and Export Gas: Constellation Energy Commodities Group Inc., et al.

The Office of Fossil Energy (FE) of the Department of Energy gives notice that during March 2013, it issued orders granting authority to import and export natural gas and liquefied natural gas and vacating prior authority. These orders are summarized in the attached appendix and may be found on the FE Web site at http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/gasregulation/authorizations/Orders-2012.html. They are also available for inspection and copying in the Office of Fossil Energy, Office of Natural Gas Regulatory Activities, Docket Room 3E-033, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20585, (202) 586-9478. The Docket Room is open between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

Issued in Washington, DC, on May 6, 2013.
John A. Anderson,
Manager, Natural Gas Regulatory Activities, Office of Oil and Gas Global Security and Supply, Office of Fossil Energy.

That web page includes a list of “DOE/FE Orders Granting Import/Export Authorizations”. The export orders are mostly for export to Canada and Mexico, plus two for “export LNG by vessel” from “the Lake Charles LNG Terminal” and “the proposed Gasfin LNG Export Project in Parish, Louisiana” to “Free Trade Agreement nations.”

Here’s DoE’s list of current NATURAL GAS IMPORT & EXPORT REGULATION – FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (FTA) COUNTRIES AND LNG EXPORTS: Continue reading Authority to Import and Export Gas by U.S. Department of Energy