Tx - Federal court overturns Texas agency’s pollution permit for Gulf Coast natural gas export terminal
Judges overturned a state air pollution permit that was issued last year, arguing that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality illegally enabled Port Arthur LNG to avoid emissions control requirements.
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A federal appeals court on Monday struck down a major air pollution permit issued by Texas’s environmental regulator, arguing that the state allowed improperly high emissions limits for Port Arthur LNG, a gas liquefaction and export terminal currently under construction on the Gulf Coast.
In a 17-page opinion, a three-judge panel at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruledthat the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality “acted arbitrarily and capriciously under Texas law” when it “declined to impose certain emissions limits on a new natural gas facility.”
The judges remanded the permit for Port Arthur LNG back to the TCEQ for correction.
“I hope this goes out and sends a message to the rest of the companies that are looking at us and want to make us a sacrifice zone,” said John Beard, a retired refinery worker and community activist in Port Arthur who first challenged the permit. “We’re going to attack every single one of them and we’re going to take them down where we can.”
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Read also
Port Arthur LNG Illegally Exceeded Emission Limits, Court Rules, The Texas Observer / Nov 16, 2023
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The court’s decision follows three years of arguments and appeals since Beard, a former industrial firefighter and founder of the Port Arthur Community Action Network, first challenged the proposed permit, which would have authorized the $13 billion facility to release 3,200 tons of carbon monoxide, 1,900 tons of nitrogen oxides, 7.7 million tons of carbon dioxide and more every year.
Beard, who was represented by the nonprofit law firm Lone Star Legal Aid, argued that lax emission limits allowed Port Arthur LNG and its parent company, Sempra Energy, to cut corners on pollution control technology.
In a statement on Wednesday, Sempra said it would continue construction on Port Arthur LNG under existing permits while it reviewed its options.
“The issue in question is a narrow technical matter,” the company said. “The court did not mandate the adoption of any specific emission limit in its decision and also noted that the TCEQ is not obligated to abide by the nonbinding guidance when issuing or reviewing the permit.”
The TCEQ declined to comment.
The argument revolves around whether TCEQ required Port Arthur LNG to use the highest standard of pollution control technology in its facility. Federal law requires state environmental regulators to verify that major new pollution sources employ the “best available control technology” to reduce emissions. That assessment should include a review of pollution control systems “used or proposed for the same or similar applications.”
Lone Star Legal Aid commissioned its own technical review of the TCEQ’s proposed permit and found that another recently approved gas terminal in Texas, Rio Grande LNG, had laid out plans in its application to operate the same equipment with substantially less pollution than what Port Arthur LNG promised.
