Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Healthy Gulf and Sierra Club filed a petition to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources to require a Coastal Use Permit for the fracked gas export terminal Plaquemines LNG that is under construction in Southern Louisiana. The organizations detail many issues with the plant, including the negative impacts that it will have on Black and Indigenous communities, the destruction of disappearing and vulnerable wetlands, and the fact that it is being built in an active hurricane zone prone to severe flooding.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced a six-month delay for CP2 and CP Express, a fracked gas export terminal and its associated pipeline project proposed for construction in Southwest Louisiana. FERC aimed to have the final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the facility done by February of next year. It now plans to issue a final EIS by July 28, 2023.
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) agreed to expand the capacity of Freeport LNG, a methane gas export facility in Texas and the site of a recent explosion. The investigation into the cause of the explosion has still not been completed. The decision was made during the agency’s monthly meeting.
Today, the fossil fuel company NextDecade announced its deal to supply 1 million tons of fracked gas a year for 20 years from its proposed Rio Grande LNG export project and the associated Rio Bravo Pipeline in Brownsville, Texas to Exxon Mobil. Companies like NextDecade and Exxon Mobil push greenwashed marketing campaigns that promote fracked gas as a “clean fossil fuel” and minimize its environmental justice and climate impacts.
EUROPE -- Today, the European Union announced it will decrease its bloc-wide methane gas, sometimes referred to as “natural gas,” consumption by 15 percent between now and Spring 2023 in response to Russia’s decision to decrease gas supply to Germany. Russian gas currently accounts for 40 percent of the EU’s supply. The agreement includes some narrow exceptions, including for small island nations and the Baltic States, which currently have limited energy alternatives, as well as countries that have lower consumption rates of gas.
Today, Sierra Club, along with HealthyGulf, filed a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers for issuing a Clean Water Act section 404 “dredge and fill” permit for the Driftwood LNG fracked gas export terminal proposed for construction in Calcasieu Parish in Southwest Louisiana.
The Sierra Club submitted motions to intervene to the United States’ Department of Energy (DOE) protesting export authorizations for three separate fracked gas “LNG” export terminals: Lake Charles LNG, New Fortress LNG, and Plaquemines LNG.
After Venture Global LLC failed to provide additional and necessary data regarding its proposed CP LNG export terminal to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the agency announced that it is suspending the environmental review process for project and its associated pipeline,
Today, 136 organizations sent a letter to President Biden in response to the June 8 explosion at the Freeport LNG export facility, expressing continued concern with expanded gas exports and calling for immediate action to protect nearby communities.
A new report on the potential impacts of Plaquemines LNG was released and sent this morning in a set of joint comments from Sierra Club and Healthy Gulf to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which urge the agency to deny the facility’s request to produce an additional 3.2 MTPA (million metric tons per year) of fracked gas. The organizations also argue that FERC must prepare a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that fully analyzes the facility’s potential impact on the environment, climate, and environmental justice communities in the construction of the Plaquemines LNG export terminal.
BRUSSELS -- Today, European Union adopted its RePowerEU plan to begin eliminating Russian fossil fuel imports. RePowerEU will focus on increasing energy efficiency and demand savings, reducing bottlenecks for clean energy projects, and expanding solar energy, with the goal of cutting the EU’s fossil gas imports from Russia by two-thirds this year and the remaining one-third by 2027. At the same time, the EU also released its International Energy Strategy, which will partially focus on increasing imports of false solutions like blue hydrogen and fossil gas through deals with the US, Egypt, Israel, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Qatar, Japan, Korea, and other countries.
Despite the escalating climate crisis caused by the global over-reliance on fossil fuels, the state-backed French company Engie made a 15-year deal with NextDecade to import 1.75 million metric tons per year of fracked gas from Rio Grande LNG, an export terminal proposed for South Texas. While Engie scrapped its original deal with Rio Grande LNG in 2020 because of the French government’s environmental concerns over hydraulic fracking in Texas, Engie has apparently reversed course despite the persistence of those same environmental concerns.