Oregon environmental regulators denied water quality certification for Canadian energy company Pembina Pipeline Corp’s proposed $10 billion Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) said on Monday its decision was made “without prejudice,” meaning Pembina may reapply for certification and submit additional information that could result in a different decision.
Pembina said on Tuesday its management team was “working to better understand this decision and its impacts and will communicate updates when available.”
The DEQ said it originally planned to make a decision on certification, one of several federal and state approvals needed before Pembina can build the project, in September, but accelerated that schedule to ensure it does not unintentionally waive Oregon’s authority to review the water quality impacts of the proposed project.
Federal courts have said a state has a year to make a water quality certification decision or they waive their authority. That waiving of rights has played a part in a few proposed gas pipelines, including National Fuel Gas Co’s Northern Access and Williams Cos Inc’s Constitution projects in New York.
The DEQ said it denied Pembina’s request due to the expected effects of construction and operation of the proposed pipeline on water temperature and sediment in streams, among other things.
Earlier this week, Pembina delayed Jordan Cove’s planned startup by a year to 2025.
Jordan Cove is one of more than three dozen LNG export projects under development in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Analysts have said they expect only a handful or so of the plants to actually get built over the next decade.
Jordan Cove is designed to produce 7.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG, equivalent to around 1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas.
One billion cubic feet is enough gas for about five million U.S. homes for a day.
Just looking at the projects under construction, U.S. LNG export capacity is expected to rise to 7.4 bcfd by the end of 2019 and 10.0 bcfd by the end of 2020 from 5.2 bcfd now.
After shipping out no LNG at the start of 2016, the United States quickly became the third biggest LNG exporter in the world by capacity by the end of 2018.