American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2017 - 18

IndustryDigest
Trump Moving Ahead
With Plans To Cut Size
Of National Monuments
WASHINGTON-President Donald
Trump plans to reduce the size of
several national monuments, including
two Utah sites, a move that follows an
executive order issued in April.
According to media reports, the
president plans to cut Bears Ears and
Grand Staircase-Escalante national
monuments. Bears Ears encompasses 1.5
million acres, while Grand Staircase is 1.7
million acres in size. Both monuments
surround state and private lands.
The April presidential directive
ordered Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke
to review 27 monuments designated
under the Antiquities Act since Jan. 1,
1996, that are 100,000 acres or more, or
any monument he believes was created
without appropriate public input, the
White House states.
"I spent a lot of time on the ground
in Utah, talking with people and
understanding the natural and cultural
significance of the area," Zinke says of
Bears Ears. "There is no doubt that it is
drop-dead gorgeous country and that it
merits some degree of protection, but
designating a monument that-including
state land-encompasses almost 1.5
million acres where multiple-use
management is hindered or prohibited is
not the best use of the land, and is not in
accordance with the intention of the
Antiquities Act."
The Navajo Nation expressed its
opposition to any plans to reduce Bears
Ears National Monument, saying
Trump's decision is based on political
favoritism and the Washington
mentality of padding the pockets of
friends, rather than in doing what is
right for the people.
"Originally, the Bears Ears InterTribal Coalition sought a designation
for 1.9 million acres, which was
reduced to 1.3 million acres when the
area was designated a national
monument by presidential proclamation
in 2016," Navajo Nation President
Russell Begaye says. "For the Nation, in
order to protect all of our sacred sites
that exist in the area, we are asking
President Trump not to reduce this."
The Navajo Nation says the
reduction plan was made with little or
no input from it, despite multiple
requests to meet with the president or
18 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

consult with Zinke.
Media reports quote Utah Governor
Gary Herbert as saying Trump told him
changes to Bears Ears would "honor" the
state's recommendation. During Zinke's
review, state officials urged reducing the
monument to 120,000 acres. Herbert
added that the president also promised to
modify Grand Staircase to allow coal
mining within its borders.
According to news reports, many
legal analysts argue only Congress
could take actions affecting monument
boundaries. r

Senate Votes To Conﬁrm
FERC Commissioners
WASHINGTON-The U.S. Senate
has confirmed the nominations of Kevin
McIntyre and Richard Glick to join the
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission. FERC says McIntyre will
serve as chairman.
McIntyre, co-leader of the Global
Energy Practice at law firm Jones Day,
will serve the remainder of a term that
ends June 2018 and a full term that ends
June 2023. Glick, general counsel for
the Democrats on the Senate Energy
and Natural Resources Committee, will
serve the remainder of a term that ends
in June 2022.
Independent Petroleum Association
of America President and Chief
Executive Officer Barry Russell lauds
the confirmations, which fill FERC's
previously vacant seats. "The
commission faces critical issues in
approving infrastructure for getting
natural gas to markets," he reflects.
"With a full slate of commissioners,
these approvals will be even stronger to
withstand opposition from those who
fight to keep natural gas in the ground. A
commission at full strength also will be
needed to handle a notice of proposed
rule making advanced by the
Department of Energy on grid reliability
and resilience pricing. This proceeding
has far-reaching implications for
electricity markets and for the energy
markets fueling generators, and deserves
the input of all five commissioners."
Russell notes that IPAA had pressed
the Trump administration repeatedly to
restore FERC's quorum through
published pieces and letters to the White
House and Senate leaders urging
expedited action. The association

maintains that a full FERC panel is
critical to carrying out the Trump
administration's goals of improving U.S.
infrastructure and encouraging continued
production and use of natural gas. r

Litigation Targeting
LNG Export Facilities
Loses In Federal Court
WASHINGTON-A federal appeals
court rejected the Sierra Club's petition
to block U.S. exports of liquefied
natural gas, saying the U.S. Department
of Energy properly followed the
National Environmental Policy Act and
other federal laws in approving three
LNG sites.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit, ruling
Nov. 1 in Sierra Club v. U.S.
Department of Energy, follows a court
decision issued in August involving a
Freeport, Tx., LNG export facility.
Court documents say this new ruling
deals with three narrow issues not dealt
with in the earlier case.
The latest petition covered
Dominion Energy's export terminal in
Cove Point, Md., and Cheniere Energy's
Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana and its
Corpus Christi, Tx., site
The Sierra Club claimed the DOE
relied on an environmental assessment
rather than an environmental impact
statement in approving the three LNG
projects. The appeals court held that it
could only overturn an agency's
decision on using an EIS over an EA if
that decision was arbitrary, capricious or
an abuse of discretion. The court ruled
against the Sierra Club.
The court also turned away the
argument that DOE should have
provided more localized analysis about
where incremental production would
occur because of increased LNG
exports. Court papers say the
"additional information" provided by
the Sierra Club to support its stance did
not pinpoint the location of additional
production to allow meaningful
analysis, "especially given the
fungibility of natural gas and the
existence of a national pipeline
network."
The Sierra Club's allegations that
DOE failed to evaluate public interest
under the Natural Gas Act faced an
identical rejection, with the appeals court
American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2017

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