Healthy Gulf v. Secretary, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources

The Louisiana Court of Appeal affirmed a district court judgment upholding the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources (LDENR) approval of a coastal use permit for the Evangeline Pass Project, which consists of two natural gas pipelines totaling approximately 13 miles in length, a new compressor station, and modification to an existing compressor station. The project is intended to supply feed gas to a natural gas liquefaction and liquefied natural gas export facility in Plaquemines Parish. The appellate court found that LDENR adequately weighed the costs of the project’s adverse environmental impacts and determined that social and economic benefits outweighed these costs, in fulfillment of its constitutional mandate as public trustee. The appellate court also found that LDENR adequately considered potential impacts of the project, including cumulative and secondary impacts related to climate change. The court agreed with LDENR that there was no legal authority requiring the agency to consider global impacts on climate change when issuing a coastal use permit. The court noted that LDENR had required the applicant to provide a mitigation plan to account for potential coastal zone impacts of climate change such as land loss. In addition, the court found that LDENR “recognized the minimal amounts of greenhouse gas emissions from the emergency generator and other stationary fuel combustion sources at the compressor stations” and that the applicant would comply with all regulatory and reporting requirements for greenhouse gas emissions. The court also upheld LDENR’s determination that a provision of its Coastal Use Guideline regarding surface alterations was not applicable because the project was “neither commercial nor industrial.”

Healthy Gulf and Sierra Club filed a petition for judicial review in Louisiana District Court challenging the granting of a coastal use permit for a methane pipeline and compressor station system (the Evangeline Pass Project) to supply a liquefaction and export facility. The groups contended that the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) failed to comply with the mandates of the Coastal Resources Management Act, including by failing to consider the project’s cumulative impacts on St. Bernard Parish and the Louisiana Coastal Zone, which the groups contended should have included cumulative emissions and related increases in storm severity and sea level rise and the impacts of the destruction of wetlands on storm surge and flooding protection. In addition to legal errors under the Coastal Resources Management Act, the groups alleged that DNR failed to meet its public trustee obligations under the Louisiana Constitution. The groups contended that the failures to comply with the Coastal Resources Management Act and its regulations also constituted failures to meet public trustee obligations under the Louisiana Constitution.