[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 43 (Monday, March 5, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13117-13119]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-5233]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. PF12-4-000]


Excelerate Energy L.P.; Notice of Intent To Prepare an 
Environmental Impact Statement for the Planned Aguirre Offshore Gasport 
Project, Request for Comments on Environmental Issues, and Notice of 
Public Scoping Meetings

    The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or 
Commission) will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) that 
will address the environmental impacts of the Aguirre Offshore GasPort 
Project involving construction and operation of facilities by 
Excelerate Energy L.P. (Excelerate) in Salinas, Puerto Rico. The 
Commission will use this EIS in its decision-making process to 
determine whether the project is in the public interest.
    This notice announces the opening of the scoping process that the 
Commission will use to gather input from the public and interested 
agencies on the project. Your input will help the Commission staff 
determine what issues they need to evaluate in the EIS. Please note 
that the scoping period will close on March 30, 2012.
    You may submit comments in written form or verbally. Further 
details on how to submit written comments are in the Public 
Participation section of this notice. In lieu of or in addition to 
sending written comments, the Commission invites you to attend the 
public scoping meetings scheduled as indicated below. The Commission 
will conduct the public scoping meetings in English, but there will be 
a concurrent Spanish language translation available.

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                            Date and time                                              Location
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March 20, 2012; 7 p.m. AST..........................................  Lions Club, Carretera 3 km Street Carrete,
                                                                       Guayama, Puerto Rico 00785.
March 21, 2012; 7 p.m. AST..........................................  Marina de Salinas, P.R. 701 (end) Playa
                                                                       Ward, Salinas, Puerto Rico 00751.
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    This notice is being sent to the Commission's current environmental 
mailing list for this project. A flyer containing a brief project 
description and the above meeting information distributed in the 
general project area presents information on how to obtain copies of 
this notice in Spanish. State and local government representatives 
should notify their constituents of this planned project and encourage 
them to comment on their areas of concern.

Summary of the Proposed Project

    Excelerate has announced its plans to construct and operate a 
maritime liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal and approximately 
4 miles of 18-inch-diameter pipeline linking the receiving facility to 
the existing onshore Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority's Central 
Aguirre Power Plant (CAPP). The LNG terminal would be in Puerto Rican 
waters, about 1 mile outside of Jobos Bay and 4 miles off the southern 
coast of Puerto Rico, near the towns of Salinas and Guayama. This 
offshore portion of the project would consist of a fixed platform and a 
permanently docked storage and regasification vessel. The facility 
would operate year-round to receive, vaporize, and deliver up to 500 
million cubic feet per day of natural gas to the CAPP.
    Specifically, the Aguirre Offshore GasPort Project would consist of 
the following:

[[Page 13118]]

     Construction of a fixed platform carrying topside 
facilities and two berths, one on each side of the fixed platform;
     Permanent docking of an LNG vessel at the fixed platform 
with a storage capacity of 150,900 cubic meters;
     Construction of about 4 miles of new 18-inch-diameter 
subsea pipeline, which would be coated in protective concrete and laid 
atop the sea floor; and
     Construction of a new onshore metering and regulating 
(M&R) station within the boundaries of the power plant.
    The general location of the project facilities is shown in Appendix 
1.\1\
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    \1\ The appendices referenced in this notice are not being 
printed in the Federal Register. Copies of appendices were sent to 
all those receiving this notice in the mail and are available at 
www.ferc.gov using the link called ``eLibrary'' or from the 
Commission's Public Reference Room, 888 First Street NE., 
Washington, DC 20426, or call (202) 502-8371. For instructions on 
connecting to eLibrary, refer to the last page of this notice.
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Land Requirements for Construction

    Excelerate is still in the planning phase for the Aguirre Offshore 
GasPort Project, and workspace requirements have not been finalized. 
However, all facility construction would be completed offshore with the 
exception of the M&R station. Following construction, less than 1 acre 
would be used for permanent operation of the project's onshore 
facilities.

The EIS Process

    The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires the 
Commission to take into account the environmental impacts that could 
result from an action whenever it considers authorizing new natural gas 
facilities. NEPA also requires us \2\ to discover and address concerns 
the public may have about proposals. This process is referred to as 
scoping. The main goal of the scoping process is to focus the analysis 
in the EIS on the important environmental issues. By this notice, the 
Commission requests public comments on the scope of the issues to 
address in the EIS. We will consider all filed comments during the 
preparation of the EIS.
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    \2\ ``We,'' ``us,'' and ``our'' refer to the environmental staff 
of the Commission's Office of Energy Projects.
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    In the EIS we will discuss impacts that could occur as a result of 
the construction and operation of the planned project under these 
general headings:
     Geology and soils;
     Water resources and sea floor;
     Marine vegetation;
     Fisheries, wildlife, and endangered and threatened 
species;
     Cultural resources;
     Land use;
     Air quality and noise;
     Socioeconomics; and
     Public safety.
    We will also evaluate possible alternatives to the planned project 
or portions of the project, and make recommendations on how to lessen 
or avoid impacts on the various resource areas.
    Although no formal application has been filed, we have already 
initiated our NEPA review under the Commission's pre-filing process. 
The purpose of the pre-filing process is to encourage early involvement 
of interested stakeholders and to identify and resolve issues before 
the FERC receives an application. As part of our pre-filing review, we 
have begun to contact some federal and state agencies to discuss their 
involvement in the scoping process and the preparation of the EIS. In 
addition, we participated in Excelerate's February 2, 2012 public 
informational open house meeting in the project area to explain the 
environmental review process to interested stakeholders and to answer 
questions about the FERC process.
    We will present our independent analysis of the issues in the EIS, 
which we will publish in both English and Spanish and distribute for 
public comment. After the comment period, we will consider all timely 
comments and revise the document, as necessary, before issuing a final 
EIS. To ensure we have the opportunity to consider your comments, 
please carefully follow the instructions in the Public Participation 
section of this notice beginning on page 5.
    With this notice, we are asking agencies with jurisdiction by law 
and/or special expertise with respect to the environmental issues 
related to this project to formally cooperate with us in the 
preparation of the EIS. Agencies that would like to request cooperating 
agency status should follow the instructions for filing comments 
provided under the Public Participation section of this notice. 
Currently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Coast Guard have 
expressed their intentions to participate as cooperating agencies in 
the preparation of the EIS to satisfy their NEPA responsibilities 
related to this project.

Consultations Under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation 
Act

    In accordance with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation's 
implementing regulations for Section 106 of the National Historic 
Preservation Act, we are using this notice to initiate consultation 
with the Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), and to 
solicit their views and those of other government agencies and the 
public on the project's potential effects on historic properties.\3\ We 
will define the project-specific Area of Potential Effects (APE) in 
consultation with the SHPO as the project develops. On natural gas 
facility projects, the APE at a minimum encompasses all areas subject 
to ground disturbance (including contractor/pipe storage yards and 
access roads). Our EIS for this project will document our findings on 
the impacts on cultural resources and summarize the status of 
consultations under Section 106.
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    \3\ The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation regulations 
are at Title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 800. Those 
regulations define historic properties as any prehistoric or 
historic district, site, building, structure, or object included in 
or eligible for inclusion in the National Register for Historic 
Places.
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Currently Identified Environmental Issues

    We have already identified several issues and alternatives that we 
think deserve attention based on a preliminary review of the planned 
facilities, comments made to us at the informational open house, 
preliminary consultations with other agencies, and initial 
environmental information provided by Excelerate. This preliminary list 
of issues may be changed based on your comments and our analysis:
     Impacts on recreational fishing, marine mammals, and 
shipping traffic in Jobos Bay and near the offshore facility; and
     Visual impacts.

Public Participation

    You can make a difference by providing us with your specific 
comments or concerns about the project. Your comments should focus on 
the potential environmental effects, reasonable alternatives, and 
measures to avoid or lessen environmental impacts. The more specific 
your comments, the more useful they will be. To ensure that your 
comments are timely and properly recorded, please send your comments so 
that the Commission receives them in Washington, DC on or before March 
30, 2012.
    For your convenience, there are four methods you can use to submit 
your comments to the Commission. In all instances, please reference the 
project docket number (PF12-4-000) with your submission. The Commission 
encourages electronic filing of comments and has expert staff available

[[Page 13119]]

to assist you at (202) 502-8258 or [email protected].
    (1) You can file your comments electronically by using the eComment 
feature located on the Commission's Web site (www.ferc.gov) under the 
link to Documents and Filings. This is an easy method for interested 
persons to submit brief, text-only comments on a project;
    (2) You can file your comments electronically using the eFiling 
feature located on the Commission's Web site (www.ferc.gov), under the 
link Documents and Filings. With eFiling, you can provide comments in a 
variety of formats by attaching them as a file with your submission. 
New eFiling users must first create an account by clicking on 
eRegister. You must select the type of filing you are making. If you 
are filing a comment on a particular project, please select ``Comment 
on a Filing'';
    (3) You can file a paper copy of your comments by mailing them to 
the following address: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE., Room 1A, Washington, DC 
20426.
    (4) You can also place your written comments in the Aguirre 
Offshore GasPort Project Comment Box located at the Salinas Public 
Library. We will arrange for our contractor to forward comments in the 
drop box directly to FERC where they will be placed into the public 
file for the project. The library is located on Calle Santos P Amadeo 
in Salinas, Puerto Rico and is open from Monday to Thursday from 9:30 
to 6 p.m. and Friday from 8 to 4:30. The library is closed on weekends.

Environmental Mailing List

    The environmental mailing list includes federal, commonwealth, and 
local government representatives and agencies; elected officials; 
environmental and public interest groups; other interested parties; and 
local libraries and newspapers. This list also includes all affected 
landowners (as defined in the Commission's regulations) who are 
potential right-of-way grantors, whose property may be used temporarily 
for project purposes, or who own homes within certain distances of 
aboveground facilities, and anyone who submits comments on the project. 
We will continue to update the environmental mailing list as the 
analysis proceeds to ensure that we send the information related to 
this environmental review to all individuals, organizations, and 
government entities interested in and/or potentially affected by the 
planned project.
    Copies of the completed draft EIS will be sent to the environmental 
mailing list for public review and comment. This distribution will be a 
CD containing both the English and Spanish version of the document. If 
you would prefer to receive a paper copy of the document instead of the 
CD version or would like to remove your name from the mailing list, 
please return the attached Information Request (Appendix 2). The return 
mailer provides you the opportunity to request either an English or 
Spanish version of the EIS hard copy.

Becoming an Intervenor

    Once Excelerate files its application with the Commission, you may 
want to become an ``intervenor,'' which is an official party to the 
Commission's proceeding. Intervenors play a more formal role in the 
process and are able to file briefs, appear at hearings, and be heard 
by the courts if they choose to appeal the Commission's final ruling. 
An intervenor formally participates in a Commission proceeding by 
filing a request to intervene. Instructions for becoming an intervenor 
are included in the User's Guide under the ``e-filing'' link on the 
Commission's Web site. Please note that the Commission will not accept 
requests for intervenor status at this time. You must wait until the 
Commission receives a formal application for the project.

Additional Information

    Additional information about the project is available from the 
Commission's Office of External Affairs, at (866) 208-FERC or on the 
FERC Web site (www.ferc.gov) using the eLibrary link. Click on the 
eLibrary link, click on ``General Search,'' and enter the docket 
number, excluding the last three digits in the Docket Number field 
(i.e., PF12-4). Be sure you have selected an appropriate date range. 
For assistance, please contact FERC Online Support at 
[email protected] or toll free at (866) 208-3676, or for TTY, 
contact (202) 502-8659. The eLibrary link also provides access to the 
texts of formal documents issued by the Commission, such as orders, 
notices, and rulemakings.
    In addition, the Commission offers a free service called 
eSubscription which allows you to keep track of all formal issuances 
and submittals in specific dockets. This can reduce the amount of time 
you spend researching proceedings by automatically providing you with 
notification of these filings, document summaries, and direct links to 
the documents. Go to www.ferc.gov/esubscribenow.htm.
    Finally, public meetings or site visits will be posted on the 
Commission's calendar located at www.ferc.gov/EventCalendar/EventsList.aspx along with other related information.

    Dated: February 28, 2012.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2012-5233 Filed 3-2-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P