II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 33 

To provide certainty with respect to the timing of Department of Energy 

decisions to approve or deny applications to export natural gas, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 6, 2015 

Mr. BARRASSO (for himself, Mr. HEINRICH, Mr. GARDNER, Ms. HEITKAMP, 

Mr. HOEVEN, Mr. KAINE, Mrs. CAPITO, and Mr. BENNET) introduced 

the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee 

on Energy and Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To provide certainty with respect to the timing of Department of Energy decisions to approve or deny applications 

to export natural gas, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘LNG Permitting Cer5 tainty and Transparency Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. ACTION ON APPLICATIONS. 

7 (a) DECISION DEADLINE.—For proposals that must 

8 also obtain authorization from the Federal Energy ReguVerDate Sep 11 2014 05:07 Jan 08, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S33.IS S33

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1 latory Commission or the United States Maritime Admin2 istration to site, construct, expand, or operate liquefied 

3 natural gas export facilities, the Secretary of Energy (re4 ferred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall issue 

5 a final decision on any application for the authorization 

6 to export natural gas under section 3(a) of the Natural 

7 Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717b(a)) not later than 45 days after 

8 the later of— 

9 (1) the conclusion of the review to site, con10 struct, expand, or operate the liquefied natural gas 

11 export facilities required by the National Environ12 mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.); 

13 or 

14 (2) the date of enactment of this Act. 

15 (b) CONCLUSION OF REVIEW.—For purposes of sub16 section (a), review required by the National Environ17 mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) shall 

18 be considered concluded when the lead agency— 

19 (1) for a project requiring an Environmental 

20 Impact Statement, publishes a Final Environmental 

21 Impact Statement; 

22 (2) for a project for which an Environmental 

23 Assessment has been prepared, publishes a Finding 

24 of No Significant Impact; or 


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1 (3) determines that an application is eligible for 

2 a categorical exclusion pursuant to National Envi3 ronmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et 

4 seq.) implementing regulations. 

5 (c) JUDICIAL ACTION.— 

6 (1) JURISDICTION.—The United States Court 

7 of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit or 

8 the circuit in which the liquefied natural gas export 

9 facility will be located pursuant to an application de10 scribed in subsection (a) shall have original and ex11 clusive jurisdiction over any civil action for the re12 view of— 

13 (A) an order issued by the Secretary with 

14 respect to such application; or 

15 (B) the failure of the Secretary to issue a 

16 final decision on such application. 

17 (2) ORDER TO ISSUE DECISION.—If the Court 

18 in a civil action described in paragraph (1) finds 

19 that the Secretary has failed to issue a decision on 

20 the application as required under subsection (a), the 

21 Court shall order the Secretary to issue the decision 

22 not later than 30 days after the Court’s order. 

23 (3) EXPEDITED CONSIDERATION.—The Court 

24 shall set any civil action brought under this sub25 section for expedited consideration and shall set the 


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1 matter on the docket as soon as practical after the 

2 filing date of the initial pleading. 

3 (4) APPEALS.—In the case of an application de4 scribed in subsection (a) for which a petition for re5 view has been filed— 

6 (A) upon motion by an applicant, the mat7 ter shall be transferred to the United States 

8 Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia 

9 Circuit or the circuit in which a liquefied nat10 ural gas export facility will be located pursuant 

11 to an application described in section 3(a) of 

12 the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717b(a)); and 

13 (B) the provisions of this Act shall apply. 

14 SEC. 3. PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF EXPORT DESTINATIONS. 

15 Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717b) 

16 is amended by adding at the end the following: 

17 ‘‘(g) PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF LNG EXPORT DES18 TINATIONS.— 

19 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In the case of any author20 ization to export liquefied natural gas, the Secretary 

21 of Energy shall require the applicant to report to the 

22 Secretary of Energy the names of the 1 or more 

23 countries of destination to which the exported lique24 fied natural gas is delivered. 


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1 ‘‘(2) TIMING.—The applicant shall file the re2 port required under paragraph (1) not later than— 

3 ‘‘(A) in the case of the first export, the 

4 last day of the month following the month of 

5 the first export; and 

6 ‘‘(B) in the case of subsequent exports, the 

7 date that is 30 days after the last day of the 

8 applicable month concerning the activity of the 

9 previous month. 

10 ‘‘(3) DISCLOSURE.—The Secretary of Energy 

11 shall publish the information reported under this 

12 subsection on the website of the Department of En13 ergy and otherwise make the information available 

14 to the public.’’. 

Æ 


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