Texas Scorecard by Luca Cacciatore | August 8, 2024
The court reaffirmed a previous ruling that found federal regulators skirted updates to environmental impact standards.A federal court has struck down liquified natural gas permits for two companies attempting to expand their presence in the Rio Grande Valley.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled Tuesday that the agency overseeing the permits, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, failed to sufficiently update environmental impact standards before approving them.
“Here, the pertinent ‘new information’ includes the updated demographic and environmental data submitted by the developers, as well as the Commission’s entirely new analysis and interpretation of that data, which are substantially different from the previously conducted environmental justice analysis in the final EIS (Environmental Impact Statement),” the three-judge panel found.
FERC officials first approved Texas LNG Brownsville’s project to build and operate an LNG export terminal in Cameron County’s Brownsville Shipping Channel in 2019, three years after the company applied.
At the same time, Rio Grande LNG, LLC and Rio Bravo Pipeline Company, LLC—both subsidiaries of NextDecade LNG, LLC—were approved to establish a new interstate pipeline running from Nueces County to the Rio Grande terminal.
More:
https://texasscorecard.com/federal/court-halts-natural-gas-permits-in-the-rio-grande-valley-for-two-massive-projects/
