NextDecade Corp. has requested FERC reply to a courtroom’s 18-month-old order to revisit the approval of Rio Grande LNG because it seeks to maneuver the Texas export terminal challenge ahead.
In a letter to the Federal Power Regulatory Fee, NextDecade CEO Matthew Schatzman urged Appearing Chairman Willie Phillips to behave on the remand issued by the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2021 and place a response on the February agenda.
Schatzman wrote that FERC’s prior administration did not act “in an affordable timeframe” and additional delays may have a “profound destructive influence” on the corporate’s potential to serve European allies and finalize investments.
“This timeline far exceeds the size of time FERC has taken to answer different federal appellate courtroom remands of Fee-approved fuel infrastructure tasks, in some instances in rather more advanced proceedings,” Schatzman stated within the letter.
FERC initially granted approval of Rio Grande LNG in 2019. The 2021 courtroom choice additionally impacted the approval of the Texas LNG challenge proposed by a unit of Glenfarne Group LLC close to Brownsville, TX. Firstly of the month, NextDecade and Texas LNG submitted environmental modeling information to meet an info request from FERC.
Within the letter, NextDecade stated the present Fee ought to have the ability to rapidly reply to the courtroom’s questions, because the scope of the remand fell into two slender classes. The courtroom particularly requested FERC to deal with why it didn’t embrace an environmental justice evaluation and a overview of the cumulative impacts of carbon emissions created by the challenge.
The agency additionally famous a complete of eight long-term sale and buy agreements (SPAs) have been inked for offtake from Rio Grande, with a lot of the 11 million metric tons/yr (mmty) of liquefied pure fuel headed to European prospects.
NextDecade stated final month it was focusing on a remaining funding choice for the primary practice of Rio Grande by the tip of March. Shipbroker Poten & Companions stated in a report final month that the corporate could also be in talks with TotalEnergies SE to finalize a 4 mmty long-term SPA, which might cowl round 86% of the challenge’s capability.
The letter follows a sequence of regulatory and courtroom wins for the challenge. In January, FERC sustained a choice to permit NextDecade till 2028 to finish the challenge. A courtroom additionally sided with the corporate in a problem in opposition to its water permits for the terminal and related pipeline challenge.
