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On September 19, 2019, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy announced the availability for public review and comment of the report Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Perspective on Exporting Liquefied Natural Gas from the United States: 2019 Update (LCA GHG Update; As used in this Abstract, “LCA” stands for life cycle analysis, and “GHG” stands for greenhouse gas.). This analysis is an update to DOE’s 2014 LCA GHG Report (79 FR 32260). The purpose of this LCA GHG Update is to provide additional information to the public and to inform DOE’s LNG export decisions with information about the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports for use in electric power generation. On June 4, 2014, DOE issued the original LCA GHG Report, entitled Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Perspective on Exporting Liquefied Natural Gas from the United States. At DOE’s request, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL)—a DOE applied research laboratory—prepared the LCA GHG Report to calculate the life cycle GHG emissions for LNG exported from the United States.  DOE received public comments on the LCA GHG Report, and responded to those comments in export authorizations issued under NGA Section 3(a). In 2018, DOE commissioned NETL to conduct an update to the LCA GHG Report. As with the 2014 Report, the LCA GHG Update compares life cycle GHG emissions from U.S. LNG exports to regional coal and other imported natural gas for electric power generation in Europe and Asia.  Core aspects of the analysis—such as the scenarios investigated—are the same as the LCA GHG Report. However, NETL implemented several updates to include more recent information.

The LCA GHG Update and comments received will be included in the dockets of 42 long-term LNG export proceedings identified in the Federal Register Notice announcing the release of the LCA GHG Update, including 16 pending applications requesting authorization to export U.S. LNG in water-borne vessels from the lower-48 states to non-FTA countries. In the remaining 26 proceedings, DOE has already issued a long-term order authorizing exports of LNG under NGA Section 3(a).  The comment period was open from September 19, 2019 to October 21, 2019. The comment period is now closed. The comments submitted appear below.

On January 2, 2020, in this Federal Register document, Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Perspective on Exporting Liquefied Natural Gas from the United States: 2019 Update - Response to Comments, DOE/FE responds to the 7 public comments received on the 2019 LCA GHG Update and summarizes its conclusions on the Study.