Description: Challenge to FERC order granting new authorizations for LNG terminal in Cameron County, Texas on remand from 2021 D.C. Circuit decision.
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City of Port Isabel v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 03/04/2024 Reply Download Reply brief filed by petitioners. 02/12/2024 Brief Download Answering brief filed by intervenor-respondent. 02/05/2024 Brief Download Answering brief filed by FERC. 12/06/2023 Brief Download Opening brief filed by petitioners. 07/10/2023 Petition for Review Download Petition for review filed. Lawsuit Filed to Challenge New FERC Reviews and Authorizations for Texas LNG Project. The City of Port Isabel, Texas, the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, and Sierra Club filed a petition for review in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) order on remand from a 2021 D.C. Circuit decision that found that FERC failed to adequately analyze climate change and environmental justice impacts of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and related pipeline and other facilities on the Brownsville Ship Channel in Cameron County, Texas. FERC addressed these issues, considered modifications to the proposed project, and issued an amended order granting authorizations for the project. Regarding climate change, FERC disclosed “[f]or informational purposes,” FERC staff’s estimate of the social cost of greenhouse gases associated with emissions from construction and operation of the facilities, but FERC said that because there were no accepted tools or methods for determining significance of the emissions, it would not characterize the emissions as significant or insignificant. FERC also conducted a new analysis of environmental justice impacts and found that impacts on environmental justice populations would be disproportionately high and adverse but that only cumulative visual impacts would be significant. -
Vecinos para el Bienestar de la Comunidad Costera v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 08/17/2023 Petition for Review Download Petition for review filed. Second Lawsuit Filed Challenging New Authorizations for Rio Grande LNG Terminal and Rio Bravo Pipeline Project. A nonprofit association “dedicated to protecting and improving the health, standard of living, and economic development of the coastal community in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas” filed a petition for review in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging new authorizations for an LNG terminal and pipeline project in Texas (the Rio Grande LNG terminal and Rio Bravo Pipeline Project). FERC granted the new approvals on remand from a 2021 D.C. Circuit decision that directed FERC to take additional analysis under NEPA and the Natural Gas Act, including by explaining whether the NEPA regulations require application of the social cost of carbon or similar framework. On remand, FERC disclosed, “[f]or informational purposes,” FERC staff’s estimate of the social cost of greenhouse gases associated with emissions from construction and operation of the facilities, but FERC said that because there were no accepted tools or methods for determining significance of the emissions, it would not characterize the emissions as significant or insignificant. The nonprofit association’s lawsuit was consolidated with a lawsuit filed in July by the City of Port Isabel, Texas; the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas; and Sierra Club.