A Louisiana District Court vacated a Coastal Use Permit issued by the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources Office of Coastal Management (OCM) for Commonwealth LNG, LLC’s construction and operation of a natural gas liquefaction, storage, and export facility in Cameron Parish. The court found that OCM failed to consider the facility’s secondary and cumulative impacts related to climate change. Although OCM argued that consideration of potential effects on global warming and climate change were outside its jurisdictional grant of authority under the legislative directives establishing the Louisiana Coastal Resources Program, the court found that the petitioners sought consideration not of the facility’s global climate change impacts but of “how this facility’s impact on climate change, if any, will exacerbate local impacts within the Coastal Zone of Louisiana.” The court further found that the Program’s statute and guidelines, “augmented by the Louisiana Constitution,” mandated consideration of impacts in combination with the impacts two other nearby LNG facilities, including potential impacts on storm severity or sea level rise. Based on the presence of these three LNG facilities within a few miles of each other, the court distinguished <a href="https://www.climatecasechart.com/collections/healthy-gulf-v-secretary-louisiana-department-of-natural-resources_b63d86">Healthy Gulf v. Secretary, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources</a>, which upheld a failure to consider global impacts of climate change. The court also found that OCM failed to consider environmental justice; the court rejected a claim that OCM failed to adequately address the risks of explosions, leaks, and other accidents. 

Challenge to issuance of a coastal use permit for a methane gas pipeline to support development of liquefied natural gas export complex.

Sierra Club v. Louisiana Department of Energy & Natural Resources

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Louisiana Trial Court Vacated State Permit for Liquefied Natural Gas Facility

Filed

United States of America

Louisiana

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Louisiana Trial Court Vacated State Permit for Liquefied Natural Gas Facility

Risk

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance