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In August 2024, the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an order vacating FERC’s remand authorization of NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG facility and the pipeline, saying that FERC should have issued a supplemental EIS during its remand process.
The US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently revised its August 2024 judgment against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s order for the first five liquefaction trains at the Rio Grande LNG facility in Texas.
“Less than significant impact”
In September 2024, FERC said it would prepare a supplemental EIS for NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG project following the ruling by the court.
FERC said on March 28 it had prepared the supplemental EIS to address the August 2024 opinion issued by the court.
“FERC staff continues to conclude that project impacts on communities with environmental justice concerns would be disproportionate and adverse because they would be predominately borne by the communities with environmental justice concerns identified and, specifically, communities in the areas near the Rio Grande LNG terminal may experience significant cumulative visual impacts,” the regulator said.
“Specific to air quality impacts, we clarify that the project’s air quality impacts on communities with environmental justice concerns would also be disproportionate and adverse; however, air quality impacts near the Rio Grande LNG terminal would not be significant,” it said.
“Specific to the RB pipeline, we identify potential significant air quality impacts on communities with environmental justice concerns near compressor station 1 and have requested refined modeling to clarify those findings,” FERC said
“For all other resources, FERC staff continues to conclude that approval of the projects would result in less than significant impacts, with implementation of the environmental conditions set forth in the Commission’s prior authorizations for the project, and the additional mitigation measures recommended in the draft supplemental EIS. Furthermore, staff does not recommend the CCS alternative,” the regulator said.
FERC said the comment period closes on May 19, 2025.
Rio Grande LNG
NextDecade is currently building three trains at the site located on the north shore of the Brownsville Ship Channel in south Texas.
In July 2023, NextDecade took the final investment decision on the first three Rio Grande trains and completed a $18.4 billion project financing.
NextDecade awarded the $12 billion EPC contract to Bechtel, and it officially kicked off work on the plant in October 2023.
The company recently said it is also making “excellent” progress on commercializing Rio Grande LNG trains 4 and 5.
In addition, NextDecade announced plans to build up to five more trains at the Rio Grande LNG facility.
NextDecade said it is developing and beginning the permitting process for trains 6 through 8, which are wholly owned by NextDecade and are cumulatively expected to increase the company’s total liquefaction capacity by approximately 18 million tonnes per annum once constructed and placed into operation.