Siting authority over liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals will likely be the second most contentious issue facing the members of House Energy and Commerce Committee during mark-up of omnibus energy legislation this week, preceded only by the heated dispute over waivers for producers of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), said an official with a major natural gas pipeline group.

“I would anticipate it to be the most heavily debated topic other than MTBE,” noted Martin Edwards, vice president of legislative affairs for the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA).

In the current draft of the House energy bill, Edwards said lawmakers’ intent is to house the LNG siting decisions at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, but allow the states to play a major role in permitting to protect the environment. By having jurisdiction over siting, the Commission alone would determine whether a proposed facility meets the public interest and where it should be located.

INGAA supports the House energy panel’s draft measure “regarding the siting, permitting and regulation of [LNG] terminals. These provisions endorse an efficient process for the comprehensive review and siting of LNG import terminals, while maintaining a significant role for state governments in environmental permitting and safety/security oversight. The federal role in siting these facilities is of paramount importance to ensuring that there will be sufficient natural gas supplies to meet our future demands,” wrote INGAA President Donald F. Santa Jr. in a letter Monday to Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

In addition to backing the LNG siting provisions in the bill, Santa said the pipeline group supported a provision that would require the FERC administrative record, developed during its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review, to be used as the exclusive record for all subsequent administrative and judicial appeals. It also endorsed expedited judicial review of permitting decision related to FERC-approved pipelines.

INGAA believes House lawmakers could make further improvements to the interstate pipeline approval and siting process in their bill, including clarifying FERC’s “lead agency” status under NEPA and giving FERC the authority to establish a binding administrative schedule for all permitting decisions necessary to construct an agency-approved pipeline.

INGAA’s Edwards expects the House energy panel to complete mark-up of its portion of the energy bill this week. The House Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, also is scheduled to mark up its part of the bill this week. The House Ways and Means Committee, which will write the energy tax package, has not scheduled mark-up yet.

“It may be another month or so before they [the Senate] get started” on debating the energy bill, Edwards said. The Senate’s top energy negotiators, Sens. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), are trying to get a lot of the energy issues negotiated before they bring the bill to the floor, he noted.

Edwards expects the energy bill to sail through the House “without too much problem” this year. He believes that the GOP dominance in the Senate and the fact that Domenici and Bingaman are working together also “bodes well” for passage of energy legislation by the Senate this year.

©Copyright 2005Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.