In the past, it has taken years for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to issue decisions on whether or not to authorize onshore LNG facilities. At the end of August, however, FERC announced that following that been done to help speed up the process: addition of more FERC staff for LNG projects, agreement with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to improve coordination between the agencies on siting and safety reviews of LNG projects, use of an outside contractor to assist with construction inspections, and use of third-party contractors to perform analyses that involve non-proprietary information. 

FERC also released schedules to complete environmental reviews (either an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement) as well as decision deadlines for all federal approvals for the following ten other LNG projects:

This should help LNG developers as they work to navigate the permitting process and obtain the approvals that lenders want to see before such projects are financed.