By Kennedy Maize
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has killed a Trump and Biden administration rule that allowed transportation of liquefied natural gas by rail. The case against the rule was led by the Sierra Club with several other national environmental groups signed on, along with 14 state governments and the Puyallup tribal government from westerns Washington state.
The Jan. 17 ruling by a three-judge panel to vacate the 2020 rule was unanimous. The court ruled that the “LNG-by- Rail” rule by DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PMHSA) failed to consider the environmental impacts of shipping the highly inflammable fuel from production sites under the terms of the National Environmental Policy Act.
LNG is currently transported by pipeline and trucks. Writing for the majority, Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee, said, “A breach of one or more rail cars containing LNG could cause an explosion, an inferno, or the spread of a freezing, flammable, suffocating vapor cloud. The real possibility of such catastrophes significantly affects the quality of the human environment.” Pan noted that the Trump rule had no limit on how many LNG tank cars could be included in a train load and set no speed limits for the LNG trains.
The National Law Journal commented, “The decision to limit the domestic transportation of LNG conflicts with President Trump’s “American Energy Dominance” agenda” and the views of then Energy Secretary nominee Chris Wright. Reuters reported, “Without the court’s ruling, the incoming Trump administration could have allowed the rule to take effect later this year.”
The Trump administration promulgated the rule in 2019 to go into effect in July 2020. In 2021, the Biden administration suspended it until June 2025, while defendin it against court challenges. The National Law Journal reported, “During oral arguments, the federal government claimed that it had no intention of modifying the LNG-by-Rail Rule – meaning that the suspension would lift in 2025” and the rule would go into effect.
The National Law Journal said, “For now, this hurdle remains procedural. To reinstate the LNG-by-Rail Rule, PHMSA will have to prepare an EIS and take into account the environmental risks before approving the transportation of LNG by rail. And while the D.C. Circuit expressed ‘no opinion on the wisdom of any particular set of safety protocols,’ it left the door wide open to later challenges, explaining that “future legal challenges to the substance of that decision would . . . be brought under some other statute, not NEPA.”
The Puyallup tribe has a particular interest in rail shipments of LNG, as Alaska has long sought to move its plentiful natural gas resources to market and export markets are booming. The Pacific coast, particularly Washington, harbors prime targets for LNG exports. Alaska’s state government is hosting a project – the Alaska LNG Project – to move North Slope gas to market.
On inauguration day (Jan. 20), among his flurry of executive orders, Trump targeted Alaska’s gas reserves, saying it is his policy to “prioritize the development of Alaska’s liquified natural gas potential, including the permitting of all necessary pipeline and export infrastructure related to the Alaska LNG Project, giving due consideration to the economic and security benefits associated with such development.”
The Trump executive order does not directly mention the Department of Transportation or the PMHSA.
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