By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. court on Tuesday ordered the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reassess the impact of greenhouse gas and other emissions from Commonwealth LNG’s Louisiana liquefied natural gas project.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia did not vacate FERC’s 2022 approval of the project as it ordered the regulator to consider the impact of emissions.
“We think it ‘reasonably likely’ that on remand, the Commission can redress the defects in its (greenhouse gas)emissions and cumulative-effects analysis and still authorize the Project,” the court said in its decision.
Five environmental groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council sued FERC over the approval saying it did not take climate and air pollution risks seriously when it approved the project in November, 2022.
Commonwealth has not made a final investment decision yet. If developed, the project is expected to begin shipping 9.5 million tonnes a year of LNG from Cameron, Louisiana in 2027.
Private equity firm Kimmeridge, through its subsidiary Kimmeridge Texas Gas, acquired a 90% stake in Commonwealth LNG, it said in June.
In the 2022 approval, Democratic members of FERC had listed concerns about the impact of emissions linked to warming the planet and on communities frequently exposed to other types of pollution, saying the terminal would produce the equivalent of about 3.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually.
But they approved the project, saying federal natural gas law requires FERC to approve facilities unless they are contrary to the public interest.
Commonwealth did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; additional reporting by Curtis Williams in Houston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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