FERC staff Friday issued a favorable draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the Magnolia LNG LLC liquefaction and export terminal proposed for Lake Charles, LA, as well as modifications to an existing natural gas pipeline that would serve the terminal.

The projects would have “adverse environmental impacts,” but these could be reduced to insignificant levels with proposed and recommended mitigation measures, staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said [CP14-511].

Magnolia filed in April 2014 for authorization to construct the terminal in Calcasieu Parish, LA. Magnolia is a project of LNG Ltd., which also is planning an export terminal in Nova Scotia (see Daily GPI, Nov. 3, 2014; March 7, 2014). The Magnolia terminal in Louisiana is expected to include four trains, two LNG storage tanks each with a capacity of 160,000 cubic meters, and vessel loading facilities.

In June 2014 Kinder Morgan Louisiana Pipeline LLC filed for a certificate to construct and operate pipeline system modifications to allow delivery of gas to the proposed terminal. The project would create a new north-to-south path on the pipeline’s existing system through modifications in Acadia, Evangeline and Calcasieu parishes (see Daily GPI, Jan. 29, 2014).

Earlier this year U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) urged FERC to speed up its approval of the Magnolia terminal (see Daily GPI, March 18).