Federal regulators on Thursday approved a Louisiana liquefied natural gas project that has been a lightning rod for environmental activists and a litmus test for the Biden administration’s energy policies.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted 2-1 to allow construction and operation of the Calcasieu Pass 2 LNG plant and a related, 85-mile-long (137 km) pipeline.
The multi-billion-dollar export plant proposed by Venture Global LNG would supply 20 million metric tons a year of the superchilled gas to customers in Europe, Japan, China and to U.S. exporters. Venture Global was not immediately available for comment.
The project has drawn the ire of environmentalists who say the project would entrench the use of fossil fuels that contribute to climate warming and emit tons of pollution into the surrounding communities.
FERC’s approval clears the way for Reston, Virginia-based Venture Global LNG to become the second-largest U.S. LNG exporter, behind Cheniere Energy. The company has two plants operating or under development in Louisiana and aims to build 100 million tons of LNG capacity in the future.
The plant is the first to win a construction authorization since the administration of President Joe Biden in January put a pause on future LNG export permits to review economic and environmental implications. That review is expected to wrap up after the U.S. presidential election in November.
Environmental activist Bill McKibben called the FERC approval a travesty for science and environmental justice and said it was made in the midst of the hottest summer in human history.
“It underscores just how crucial and brave Biden’s decision to pause new permits may turn out to be. It’s now the only defense against the indefensible,” said McKibben, who is also a Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College.
(Reporting by Curtis Williams in Houston and Tim McLaughlin in Boston; Editing by Andrea Ricci)