The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals partially granted project applicants’ petitions for panel rehearing of the court’s August 2024 decision vacating the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) reauthorization of two liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and an associated pipeline in Texas. The court found that although FERC had made “unjustifiable” procedural choices to skip certain steps, these “procedural missteps, though important, are not so fundamental as to justify throwing the projects and those reliant upon them into disarray.” The court declined to resolve disputes regarding the impacts of two intervening executive orders issued by President Trump that revoked a 1994 executive order on environmental justice and limited the scope of environmental considerations to be weighed by agencies, though the court noted that the orders might be “highly relevant” to FERC’s proceedings on remand.

Challenge to FERC order granting new authorizations for LNG terminal in Cameron County, Texas on remand from 2021 D.C. Circuit decision.

City of Port Isabel v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

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D.C. Circuit Said Remand Without Vacatur Was Appropriate for FERC Procedural Missteps on LNG Terminal Reviews

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United States of America

District of Columbia

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D.C. Circuit Said Remand Without Vacatur Was Appropriate for FERC Procedural Missteps on LNG Terminal Reviews

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Fossil fuel

Economic sector