Staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will prepare an environmental impact statement for the Plaquemines LNG Project involving construction and operation of facilities by Venture Global Plaquemines LNG LLC in Plaquemines and Jefferson parishes in Louisiana. The project was approved for prefiling review in July (see Daily GPI, July 7). Comments received on the project before July 2 must be filed again in docket No. PF15-27.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected the University of California, Berkeley in partnership with others including the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to lead a five-year, $50 million international research effort centered on water use in energy projects. The Clean Energy Research Center for Water Energy Technologies (CERC-WET) will look at the impact of water resource scarcity and variability on energy systems in the United States, China and around the world as part of a joint effort with China that was launched in 2009 by the Obama administration. DOE and the partnering organizations are putting up $25 million, which will be matched by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and its consortium partners. CERC-WET is focused on “building the foundation for technologies and expertise” that will position both nations to continue to grow with constrained energy and water resources, a spokesperson for UC Berkeley said. In the Berkeley-led consortium three additional UC campuses — Davis, Merced and UCLA — are participating, along with Massachusetts-based Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)-US.