By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
Federal judges have struck down President Trump’s first-term decision that led to rules allowing so-called “bomb trains” transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to roll through densely populated cities along the Florida East Coast Railway.
A coalition of environmental nonprofits, including Earthjustice and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida, 14 states and the District of Columbia and the Puyallup Tribe of Indians in western Washington state, sued the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2020, arguing that the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) did not sufficiently consider the safety risks of transporting LNG by rail before reaching its decision.
“They argue, in relevant part, that the National Environmental Policy Act required PHMSA to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement, and that its decision not to do so was arbitrary and capricious. We agree,” says last week’s 24-page opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Florida Bulldog reported in September 2020 that a subsidiary of the multi-billion-dollar private equity firm Fortress Investment Group received two special permits to transport LNG by rail during Trump’s first term. The permits, facilitating Fortress projects costing hundreds of millions of dollars, were issued after Fortress forgave more than $100 million in debt owed by President Trump.
In 2012, four years before Trump’s first election to the presidency, court papers filed by the New York Attorney General’s office said Fortress agreed to accept $48 million from The Trump Organization in full satisfaction of a debt of approximately $150 million, including interest and fees, that Trump had run up while borrowing from Fortress Credit to help finance construction of the Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago in 2005.
LNG is a highly flammable methane gas that is regarded as a cleaner, more efficient fuel that is both environmentally friendly and widely available. Trump’s April 2019 order, which allowed LNG to be transported by rail around the country, was intended to remove barriers that might interfere with his plan to ramp up LNG exports.
LNG is a natural gas that is liquified by chilling it to -260 degrees F, which facilitates its transportation and storage. For transport, the liquid is pumped into specialized temporary cryogenic containers that keep it chilled and stable.
HOTTER THAN LAVA
When warmed LNG reverts to its gaseous state, which causes it to expand. That expansion places tremendous pressure on its container, creating the risk of explosion.
Should it leak and ignite, the resulting inferno would burn at a temperature of 2,426 degrees F, or hotter than a volcano’s lava flow. “If LNG spills without igniting, it can form an ultra-cold gas cloud that can spread over a wide area, severely injuring people and damaging property in its path,” says the three-judge panel opinion written by Circuit Judge Florence Pan.
Before 2020, the shipment of LNG by rail was authorized only as necessary by special permit. But in response to Trump’s order directing PHMSA to initiate rulemaking to allow LNG transport by rail, PHMSA issued a rule authorizing it in newly designed tank cars with no permit required. The new LNG Rule also imposed no limit on the number of LNG tank cars that could be included in a single train.
“One company contemplated a single train with 80 tank cars containing LNG,” the opinion says.
Florida Bulldog reported in September 2019 that about 3,000 public comments were submitted during rulemaking. Most implored the agency to reject the proposal.
“Commenters expressed alarm about the potentially catastrophic consequences of a train derailment in which LNG tank cars were breached or punctured,” the opinion says. “For example, a group of environmental organizations asserted that the amount of energy contained in 22 tank cars of LNG would be equal to that of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II. PHMSA nevertheless opined that transporting LNG by rail under its LNG Rule would have no significant effect on the environment.”
Amtrak engineer Ron Kaminkow of Reno, NV, the general secretary of Railroad Workers United, told Florida Bulldog in 2019, “If I lived in South Florida near the Florida East Coast Railway corridor, I would move now.”
In 2021, the Biden Administration proposed a rule to halt the transport of LNG by rail except for three states where New Fortress Energy plants had received special permits, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Florida permit allowed the FEC to ship LNG in special cryogenic rail cars known as ISO containers from New Fortress’s liquefaction plant in Hialeah to ports from Miami and Port Everglades to Jacksonville.
At the same time, the administration asked the plaintiffs in the current lawsuit to voluntarily stay their case while they considered whether to repeal the rule, said Earthjustice attorney Bradley Marshall, who is based in Tallahassee. The reason was to allow for a “more complete understanding of the risks and benefits associated with rail tank car transportation of LNG.”
The plaintiffs agreed, and the rule was temporarily suspended. But it was never repealed, and when the suspension expired in June the case was back on. Both sides argued before the court in September.
What happens next isn’t yet clear. A source at PHMSA said the government is “currently reviewing the D.C. Circuit Court’s decision.” The DOT could decide to ask for an en banc hearing by all of the appellate court’s judges, appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court or accept panel’s decision and begin the impact study.
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