This story was originally published by Louisiana Illuminator
A Cameron Parish judge has ruled that state officials violated the Louisiana Constitution when they issued a permit for a liquified gas export terminal, which has halted construction on the facility.
The decision, reached Friday, found that the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy (formerly Energy and Natural Resources) failed to consider the environmental impacts on surrounding communities when it approved a permit for the Commonwealth LNG export facility.
The halted Commonwealth facility is one of six LNG export projects proposed, approved or operating along Cameron’s coast. Construction of the pipelines, storage tanks and shipping facilities that make up the facility would dig up or fill nearly 200 acres of wetlands and water bottoms, according to the project’s coastal use permit application.
Judge Penelope Richard cited the close vicinity of other export terminals as a factor in her decision, saying the state “failed to consider the secondary and cumulative impacts” of these facilities on climate change in the coastal zone.
“We hope this ruling shakes Louisiana to its senses,” said Anne Rolfes, director of Louisiana Bucket Brigade. “The coastal use permit needs to be revoked.”
Rolfes’s organization, the Sierra Club and the Turtle Island Restoration Network filed the suit in August 2024.
“This is an area of the Louisiana coastline that is being devastated by LNG facilities,” said Joanie Steinhaus, ocean program director for Turtle Island Restoration Network. “These agencies have long ignored the cumulative impact to air and water quality and the health of the local community members and the environment”
There was no immediate response to attempts Tuesday to reach Commonwealth LNG about the court ruling.
Another lawsuit in a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of the project, citing its pollution impact. The decision delayed construction for two months until a new permit reevaluated the full impact of air pollution harms.
The state permit for Commonwealth LNG will be suspended until the Office of Coastal Management considers climate change and environmental justice concerns in its evaluation, according to Judge Richard’s ruling. The state would need to consider these additional aspects and find that impacts on the community do not outweigh the benefits of constructing another LNG export facility along Cameron’s coast in order to reissue the permit, the judge wrote in her opinion.
