FERC denies cooperating agency request

Petroleum News

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has denied a request from the state to become a cooperating agency in the environmental impact statement for the Alaska Liquefied Natural Gas Project.

In a Dec. 14 letter to Deputy Commissioner Heidi Hansen of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, FERC said the project is proposed by the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., a wholly owned public corporation of the state of Alaska, and the state requested that it become a cooperating agency through the Alaska Office of Project Management and Permitting, OPMP.

FERC said its rules prohibit OPMP from acting as a cooperating agency in a matter in which AGDC is a party, even if, as the state suggested, a firewall was established between the entities for the purpose of this proceeding.

“Although we are not able to grant the state’s request for cooperating agency status, the state may nevertheless communicate its special expertise on the record and I hope that it will take the opportunity to do so,” FERC said.

FERC is expected to release a draft EIS for the project in February.

- Petroleum News