The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said last week that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) needs to reassess the climate and environmental justice impacts of proposed liquefied natural gas terminal projects in Cameron County, Texas.
In a unanimous opinion, Judge Robert Wilkins ordered FERC to go back to work on its certificates authorizing the construction and operation of the facilities but stopped short of scrapping the approvals.
In the order and separate opinion, the court rejected all but two of the claims put forward by the projects' opponents.
The court asked FERC to further explain two technical items related to climate change and environmental justice. In its conclusion, the court expressly stated that it is “reasonably likely” that on remand FERC can address the two identified deficiencies “while reaching the same result.”
“We are pleased the court affirmed the validity of the FERC authorization of our Rio Grande LNG project and we look forward to the FERC’s response to the court’s requests,” said Matt Schatzman, NextDecade’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions are at the very foundation of our company and we have already announced actions to reduce emissions at Rio Grande LNG by more than 90 percent through use of carbon capture and storage.”
Through its wholly owned subsidiaries Rio Grande LNG and NEXT Carbon Solutions, Houston-based NextDecade is developing a 27 million tonne/year (tpy) LNG export facility in South Texas along with one of the largest carbon capture and storage projects in North America. The company is also working with third-party customers around the world to deploy its proprietary processes to lower the cost of carbon capture and storage and reduce CO2 emissions at their industrial-scale facilities. NextDecade anticipates reaching a final investment decision (FID) on at least two trains of its 27-million tpy Rio Grande LNG plant by end-2021.
