An appeals court in Washington, D.C., last week ruled against two major South Texas liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals, citing an incomplete analysis by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission(FERC).

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling applies to Texas LNG and Rio Grande LNG, two proposed terminals on the northern shore of the Brownsville Shipping Channel in Cameron County, Texas. The court also reversed FERC’s authorization of the Rio Bravo pipeline that would supply the Rio Grande LNG facility.

Environmental groups, residents, and the City of Port Isabel had challenged FERC’s decisions in court, arguing that FERC did not adequately study the projects’ air emissions and effects on the climate and nearby communities.  

In its Aug. 6 order, the appeals court ruled that FERC “erroneously declined to issue supplemental environmental impact statements addressing its updated environmental justice analysis for each project and its consideration of a carbon capture and sequestration system for one of the terminals.”

The commission “also failed to explain why it declined to consider air quality data from a nearby air monitor,” the ruling states. The court’s decision delays the terminals’ construction and sends the authorizations back to FERC for further work.