This story was originally published by the Louisiana Illuminator.
Environmental groups are yet again challenging Louisiana regulators in their decision to reissue a previously suspended permit for a liquified natural gas export facility in Cameron Parish.
The Sierra Club, Turtle Island Restoration Network and Louisiana Bucket Brigade filed a lawsuit in Louisiana’s 38th Judicial District against the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy.
The environmental groups say that the agency “violated its constitutional, statutory and regulatory duties,” as well as the court’s previous judgment when it reissued a permit for the construction of Commonwealth LNG’s export facility on the coast of Cameron Parish.
“We are objecting to this permit because it was hastily reissued and did not give the judge’s valid concerns the genuine scrutiny they deserved,” said Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade.
“The communities who would be impacted by Commonwealth LNG have made it very clear that this project is not needed and not wanted,” said Eric Huber, Sierra Club managing attorney.
Huber said the Department of Conservation and Energy “is attempting to shrug off its responsibility” by relying on studies done by other agencies— the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission— rather than doing its own analysis.
The lawsuit is the latest in back-and-forth between regulators, environmentalists and industry as the liquified natural gas industry pursues its expansion along the Gulf Coast.
Louisiana district judge Penelope Richard ruled in a surprise move in October that the state agency did not adequately consider the effects of climate change and impacts to environmental justice communities nearby the planned facility when it issued its first permit to Commonwealth LNG.
About a month later, the state reissued the permit, citing the need for haste in part to align with the Trump administration’s “energy dominance” agenda.
The United States was the largest exporter of LNG in the world in 2024, 11.9 billion cubic feet per day around the globe, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Louisiana handled around 61% of those LNG exports.
