A Louisiana state court has vacated a key permit issued to the proposed 9.5mn t/yr Commonwealth LNG export terminal, dealing the project a legal setback ahead of an anticipated final investment decision before the end of the year.
The 38th District Court of Louisiana ruled that state regulators did not properly consider the project's environmental impacts on local communities in violation of state law and vacated Commonwealth's coastal use permit.
State regulators "failed to consider the secondary and cumulative impacts, specifically this facility's impact on climate-related change in the coastal zone, if any, in conjunction with the other LNG facilities in the area", judge Penelope Richard wrote in the 10 October ruling.
The judge remanded the case back to the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources' Office of Coastal Management to redo the permit.
The proposed terminal would be built on the Calcasieu Ship Channel in southwest Louisiana, across the river from Venture Global's 12.4mn t/yr Calcasieu Pass terminal and its planned 28mn t/yr CP2 facility. Commonwealth would also be downstream of Sempra's 15mn t/yr Cameron LNG and Woodside's 16.5mn t/yr Louisiana LNG, which reached final investment decisions earlier this year.
The ruling comes as US energy asset manager Kimmeridge targets a financial decision on the Commonwealth LNG project by the end of 2025. Commonwealth LNG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Commonwealth LNG previously faced a legal hurdle when a federal court in 2024 issued an order for a review of the project's environmental impact. Commonwealth received a final environmental approval earlier this year, but cited the court ruling in its 2 October request for four additional years to build and place the terminal into service. That request is pending with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and would allow the project until 31 December 2031 to place the project's six liquefaction trains in service.
