Record of Decision and Floodplain Statement of Findings for the Lake Charles Exports, LLC Application To Export Liquefied Natural Gas to Non-Free Trade Agreement Countries

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces its decision in Lake Charles Exports, LLC (LCE), DOE/FE Docket No. 11-59-LNG, to issue DOE/FE Order No. 3324-A, granting final long-term, multi contract authorization for LCE to engage in the export of domestically produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Lake Charles Terminal located in Lake Charles, Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana (Terminal), in a volume equivalent to 730 Bcf/yr of natural gas for a term of 20 years. LCE is seeking to export LNG from the Terminal to countries with which the United States has not entered into a free trade agreement (FTA) that requires national treatment for trade in natural gas, and with which trade is not prohibited by U.S. law or policy (non-FTA countries). Order No. 3324-A is issued under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act (NGA) \1\ and 10 CFR part 590 of DOE's regulations.\2\ DOE participated as a cooperating agency with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) \3\ analyzing the potential environmental impacts resulting from modification of the existing facilities at the Terminal. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------