Above photo: Ships being loaded at Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export terminal in Cameron, Louisiana on June 6, 2024. The CP2 LNG facility is slated for the adjacent land. Julie Dermansky.
The agency again failed to account for full environmental justice and climate impacts, opponents argue.
Environmental advocates, landowners, and fishers filed two petitions with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Wednesday, challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) recent authorization for the construction of a massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. FERC approved the Calcasieu Pass (CP2) LNG terminal proposed by Venture Global in a 2-1 vote in late June.
“The approval of the CP2 LNG project is a clear indication that FERC is serving the interests of powerful industry actors rather than protecting vulnerable communities and upholding the public interest,” James Hiatt, a former oil refinery worker and Director of the Louisiana-based nonprofit For a Better Bayou, wrote in a prepared statement.
The petitions are the latest effort to block construction of the CP2 LNG facility, which could increase greenhouse gas emissions by up to 190 millions tons per year, the equivalent of 51 coal-fired power plants, according to the Sierra Club, one of the groups involved. In addition to climate warming emissions, the facility could also release pollution more directly harmful to human health, such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, fine particulate matter pollution, and volatile organic compounds. Commercial fishers are concerned that the proposed facility — in addition to the three existing LNG export terminals in the parish — will also disturb areas where they fish.
Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rescinded FERC’s approvals for two LNG export facilities proposed in Brownsville, Texas — Rio Grande LNG and Texas LNG — as well as a pipeline that would transport natural gas to the Rio Grande terminal. The court found that FERC didn’t properly address the impacts of the projects on low-income and minority populations, or the climate. The appeals court’s decision is expected to delay the projects.
Wednesday’s petitions come after FERC allowed the petitioners’ request for a rehearing on the CP2 LNG terminal to lapse last month. Because FERC didn’t act on the rehearing request, the petitioners are allowed to take their case to court, said Sierra Club Senior Attorney Nathan Matthews, who filed one of the petitions. “If the court agrees with us that FERC acted unlawfully, the court could vacate FERC’s authorizations, as the court just did for the Rio Grande LNG and Texas LNG approvals,” he told DeSmog in an email.
Venture Global did not respond to a request for comment. The Virginia-based company aims to build the CP2 LNG facility nearby its operating Calcasieu Pass LNG facility in Cameron Parish. But Venture Global cannot start construction of the CP2 LNG facility until FERC issues an order on the rehearing requests or 90 days following FERC’s missed deadline to act on the request, whichever comes first.
One of the petitions filed on Wednesday was by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of local fishers and landowners: Fishermen Involved in Sustaining Our Heritage, For a Better Bayou, and Natural Resources Defense Council. A second petition was filed by Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Healthy Gulf, Sierra Club, Texas Campaign for the Environment, and Turtle Island Restoration Network.
“FERC’s continuous sanctioning of the rapid proliferation of LNG export facilities is a crisis for Cameron Parish, its local residents, fishermen, environmental justice communities, the region, and our country,” Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Megan Gibson wrote in a prepared statement.
While FERC is charged with authorizing construction of LNG export terminals, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is tasked with discerning whether LNG exports are in the “public interest.” In January, the Biden administration announced a pause in reviewing applications to export LNG to non-free trade agreement countries, which represents the majority of these exports, as the federal agency updates the economic and environmental analyses that underpin the DOE’s assessment of whether such applications are in the public interest. In July, the Western District of Louisiana ruled in favor of Republican states that sued to lift the pause. The United States currently leads global LNG production and export.
Some fishers in Cameron Parish say Venture Global’s existing LNG export facility has created LNG carrier traffic that’s limited their use of public fishing docks in the area as well as areas where they catch shrimp. The CP2 LNG terminal could further degrade commercial fishing in the parish, said Travis Dardar, a local fisher and founder of Fishermen Involved in Sustaining our Heritage (FISH).
“Calcasieu Pass LNG has decimated our fishing industry, and we won’t recover if CP2 LNG is built next to it,” he said in a prepared statement. “FERC made a terrible and unjust decision when they approved CP2, but it’s not too late for the court — or even the Commission — to right this wrong.”