Posted on 06/03/2005 6:57:22 PM PDT by Lorianne
Exxon Mobil Corp. moved one step closer Friday to winning approval for a liquefied natural gas terminal on the Texas Gulf Coast that could be used to import LNG from Qatar by 2008.
The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said Friday that a proposed site near the Texas-Louisiana border won't significantly harm the environment. The next step is for the commission to consider recommendation.
The project at Sabine Pass is called Golden Pass. Exxon Mobil has another proposed site, near Corpus Christi, that is awaiting final approval, and a third location off the shore of Cameron Parish, La.
Exxon Mobil spokesman Bob Davis said the company expects to build only one terminal and prefers an onshore location.
"We are pursuing three sites just to provide options and flexibility ... if we run into a logjam," Davis said. "We hope to begin construction by late summer."
Exxon hopes to finish a terminal in 2008, when it can begin exporting natural gas under a recent deal with the Persian Gulf state Qatar.
The Sabine Pass site in Jefferson County is designed to receive up to 200 LNG tankers a year and ship an average of 2 billion cubic feet per day of gas into the U.S. market.
More than 100 acres of wetlands would be lost to build the terminal and more would be altered by roads and other facilities, the energy commission staff said. Other wetlands would be restored
Can't Bush just waive stringent environmental requirements so that more LNG and oil refineries can be built rapidly in the U.S.? On what basis do judges and environmentalists have such massive power to derail these critical American industries?
Two months is too slow for you?
"We hope to begin construction by late summer."
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