Three environmental groups have joined forces to file a lawsuit against the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality regarding a permit for a new liquefied natural gas facility in Cameron Parish.
Last week, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Sierra Club and Environmental Integrity Project filed a lawsuit against DEQ for granting Venture Global a Clean Air Act permit for the Calcasieu Pass 2 LNG facility, according to a joint news release from the organizations.
“Venture Global has a long history of noncompliance with regards to its Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal,” Cameron Parish resident and Sierra Club member John Allaire said in the release. “This company has been a bad neighbor and continually pollutes the air we breathe, while generating billions of dollars in profits.
“We fear that CP2 LNG will be more of the same — more air pollution that is making us sick. It is time for LDEQ to do its job and protect people, not corporate profits.”
DEQ Communications Director Greg Langley told The Advocate the agency does not comment on pending litigation. When The Advocate reached out to Venture Global, the company did not respond.
David Bookbinder, director of Law and Policy for Environmental Integrity Project, said the complaint is centered around the belief that CP2 will emit more pollution than DEQ assumed and will have air quality violations, as well as the fact that some of the permit limits are more lenient than justified for different pollutants.
“We’re dealing with a facility that’s going to be emitting many, many, many tons of pollutants and … the local impact on people who are directly breathing the air is going to be bad,” Bookbinder said. “The other problem is that it, not just for the people who are going to be directly breathing it, will contribute to the entire area having air quality violations. It mucks up people’s air.”
The facility, which will be one of the largest LNG plants in the nation, would export 20 million metric tons of LNG per year, according to the release. The estimated life cycle greenhouse gas from the methane gas would be more than the annual emissions of 47 million gas-powered cars, the release states.
Construction started on CP2 this summer, and the facility is expected to begin LNG production in 2027.
Allaire, a former oil industry worker, said he and the organizations are upset that the state would grant CP2 a Clean Air Act permit based on the compliance history of Venture Global at Calcasieu Pass, which began operating in 2022.
During its first calendar year of operation, the Calcasieu Pass LNG facility had at least 139 incidents where it exceeded the hourly emission limits of its air permits, The Advocate previously reported. In addition, DEQ granted the facility an increase in its allowed emissions in 2023.
Bookbinder said the next steps for the lawsuit will be the court reaching out within a couple of weeks to provide a schedule to submit all the preliminary paperwork, and about two months later it will release a schedule for briefing.
From there, there will be arguments and then a decision, “hopefully by the end of 2026,” Bookbinder said.
Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, said that overall the permit is flawed and that is what they would like to see fixed.
“The Department of Environmental Quality does not have a realistic assessment of this facility that they’re letting them get away with putting whatever they want on paper and not really tending to the Clean Air Act,” Rolfes said. “Our goal would be to get a real serious permit on this facility. I do believe that if you took an honest look at the emissions and at the area and the burden it’s already bearing, that they could never get a permit because the pollution there is already too intense.”