Opponents of U.S. LNG export projects are testing their winning streak in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, this time with a challenge of Venture Global LNG Inc.’s CP2 project.
A coalition of local southwestern Louisiana fisherman and landowners, as well as the Natural Resources Defense Council, asked the court to review FERC’s approval of the 20 million metric tons/year (mmty) terminal in Cameron Parish, LA. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a positive order for the facility in June after a more than 10-month wait.
Lawyers with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), which are representing the groups, said FERC’s analysis was insufficient, especially in assessing how CP2 LNG would impact environmental justice (EJ) communities around the facility.
“FERC’s rubber stamping of all proposed export projects before it, without any proper examination of need or adverse impacts, risks not only crushing already overburdened communities, but also undermining any existing integrity of the regulatory framework,” SELC Senior Attorney Megan Gibson said.
A coalition of environmental groups led by the Sierra Club also filed a petition against CP2 LNG’s authorization in the DC Circuit Court. Sierra Club Senior Attorney Nathan Matthews said that “federal courts have repeatedly affirmed that methods like FERC used” in the CP2 LNG analysis are “inadequate and unlawful.
“We think the Court will find, once again, that FERC did not do its job,” Matthews said.
The Environmental Protection Agency and FERC generally use the term “EJ community” to describe disadvantaged populations that have been “historically marginalized and overburdened by pollution,” according to the agencies.
In the final environmental assessment for CP2, FERC staff wrote the project likely wouldn’t have any permanent negative effects for the environment, but noted the assessment didn’t measure climate or cumulative impacts and could “impair visual resources” for nearby EJ communities.
Environmental groups increasingly have argued in challenges to LNG projects that impacts like limiting visual resources negatively impacts industries like tourism and fishing, placing unnecessary burdens on already disadvantaged communities.
Some of those arguments have been gaining traction, at least in the DC Circuit, which so far has remanded or outright vacated FERC authorization for three LNG export projects this year.
In July, the court ruled that FERC hadn’t properly explained why it chose not to review the impact of greenhouse gas or the cumulative burden of nitrogen releases from the proposed Commonwealth LNG project in Louisiana.
A month later, the DC Circuit vacated authorization for Texas LNG and Rio Grande LNG, ordering Commission staff to conduct new environmental reviews and opening the projects up to additional public comment periods.
FERC has approved other projects related to natural gas exports this year, including Oneok Inc.’s 2.8 Bcf/d Saguaro Connector natural gas pipeline. However, CP2 was the first proposed terminal project to receive authorization after the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in January paused considerations for new worldwide LNG export permits.
CP2 is impacted by DOE’s pause, as its application to export to non-free trade agreement countries is still pending. It is one of at least six U.S. LNG projects with volumes under contract that have been stalled since that pause began.
In a timeline filed with FERC last month, Venture Global disclosed it is targeting the start of construction by the end of September, which places the project’s in-service date near the end of 2028.
