Louisiana again sued over permit for major LNG project. State has embraced fast-growing industry.

Environmental advocacy groups allege in a new lawsuit that regulators violated a court ruling by reissuing a key permit for a liquefied natural gas export terminal in southwest Louisiana, a case that could impact the state’s rapid development of its LNG industry.

The lawsuit marks the latest in a string of litigation over the potential environmental harms that the project, Commonwealth LNG, could wreak on communities of color and low-income communities in a part of the state at the epicenter of the LNG buildout.

The suit filed in the 38th Judicial District Court in Cameron Parish last month claims that Louisiana’s energy department failed to truly assess the environmental impacts of the LNG project, after the state court struck down the previous permit. The new permit “does not correct the errors found by this court in any respect,” the suit says. 

The agency also failed to offer an opportunity for public comment, according to the environmental organizations Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Sierra Club and the Turtle Island Restoration Network. 

“They didn’t really do any analysis themselves,” said Clay Garside, an attorney for the environmental groups.

The Department of Conservation and Energy does not comment on pending litigation, a spokesperson said. Commonwealth LNG, based in Houston, could not be reached for comment.

What led to the lawsuit? 

Last October, Judge Penelope Richard invalidated Commonwealth’s coastal use permit on the grounds that Louisiana officials failed to consider the project’s impacts of climate change and environmental justice. It was the first time a court had invalidated an LNG permit based on those concerns, advocates noted, and the ruling effectively halted construction for the multibillion-dollar project. 

Richard wrote in her ruling that the state energy agency must prove that the benefits of the project outweigh the costs to the community. She mentioned potential harms to “those living in poverty, and those who fish not only for recreation but for their livelihood, which has always been a defining characteristic of Cameron Parish.”

Environmental and community groups applauded the decision as an incremental win in an ongoing fight against the LNG export expansion in Southwest Louisiana, which they stress will damage the coast and emit polluting fossil fuels.

Louisiana has positioned itself as the epicenter of the global LNG export market, where technology at the massive facilities transform natural gas into liquid form, allowing the fuel to be exported worldwide. In 2023, the state produced more than 60% of the nation’s LNG exports. Richard noted in her judgment that Commonwealth would be the third LNG facility on the Calcasieu Ship Channel, located near Lake Charles and the Texas line.

State officials, meanwhile, denounced the ruling and vowed to appeal. Attorney General Liz Murrill previously said the ruling “ignores the actual facts in the record.” 

Proponents of LNG tout job creation, revenue and the importance of supplying U.S. allies with fuel long seen as burning cleaner than coal.

‘Copy and pasted’

Five weeks after the ruling, Louisiana’s energy agency issued a new coastal permit for the project. Louisiana officials relied on analysis from other agencies — the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the state’s Department of Environmental Quality — in their determination. 

“They copy and pasted prior analysis that was later invalidated,” Garside said of the state agency. “And then they say, ‘we agree with this and we’ve studied it independently and it’s our opinion that there are no environmental justice impacts.’” 

Garside said that the FERC analysis the state agency used had itself been voided in 2024 in a separate federal lawsuit.  

The state agency also “ignored clear disparate impacts on environmental justice communities” and did not account for the climate change impacts Commonwealth would have in conjunction with the other LNG projects online and expected in Cameron Parish, according to the lawsuit. 

Anne Rolfes, who leads the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, said the state government is “doing everything it can to please this company” while the fishing industry in the area is struggling due to the export industry.

As the legal saga with the environmental groups has unfolded, Commonwealth LNG has separately secured a long-term deal with Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia, Reuters has reported. Commonwealth has a 20-year authorization from the federal government to export LNG to non-free trade agreement countries and approval to export to FTA countries for 25 years.