Will President Obama force Oregon LNG to evaluate climate impacts?

Blog post by Brett VandenHeuvel, Riverkeeper’s Executive Director—

Bloomberg reported that “President Barack Obama is preparing to tell all federal agencies for the first time that they should consider the impact on global warming before approving major projects, from pipelines to highways. The result could be significant delays for natural gas-export facilities . . .”

Bloomberg's article is referring to new guidance that the White House is expected to release that may force all federal agencies to do a more consistent job in evaluating carbon pollution under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). For Oregon LNG, the new guidance could tell the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to evaluate the impacts of fracking for natural gas and the carbon cost of supercooling gas for export. We believe that once these impacts are disclosed, the project is even less viable. New guidance from the White House would be promising, but we are not holding our breath. Stay tuned...