Environmental groups lack standing to challenge first offshore LNG terminal

A Fifth Circuit panel refused to reach the merits of MARAD’s Delfin LNG license, finding no member used waters the project would actually impair.(CN) — Forty miles off Cameron Parish, a planned cluster of floating vessels received the nation’s first license to chill American natural gas for export. In a July opinion made public Friday, a Fifth Circuit panel refused to let environmental groups block the project, finding they failed to show anyone would be harmed by it.“Petitioners have identified no member who has made that showing — no one who fishes near the port, boats beside it, works around it, or otherwise uses Project-affected waters or nearby areas in a way the Project would impair,” U.S. Circuit Judge Don Willett wrote. “Their concern for the Gulf may be heartfelt. But concern without injury is not standing.”In June, the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and Habitat Recovery Project asked the court to vacate the Maritime Administration’s March 2025 license for Delfin LNG, arguing the agency skipped additional review after significant changes to the project’s financing.A 2024 MARAD letter had found the changes significant enough to warrant further review. After an executive order directed the agency to quickly determine whether the modifications painted a “seriously different picture” of environmental harm, MARAD found they reduced impacts, then issued the license.But the panel never reached the merits. Standing comes first, Willett emphasized.“[Article III] is no empty formality,” he wrote. “Courts do not exist to resolve every important public controversy.”Instead, they act only when someone has suffered or faces a concrete and particularized injury traceable to the challenged decision.The groups submitted five member declarations, but the court found none compelling.Their strongest witness, commercial and recreational fisherman Eddie LeJuine of Hackberry, said habitat destruction and industrialization tied to the project had made fishing “significantly harder.” He fishes along Calcasieu Lake and 20 to 30 miles offshore but never linked those waters to Delfin’s facilities or distinguished the project from broader industrial development, the court said.“The Gulf is huge,” Willett noted, covering about 600,000 square miles. “We cannot simply presume pollution discharged in one place will affect would-be plaintiffs everywhere.”A Sierra Club field manager raised concerns about Rice’s whales, greenhouse gases and recreation but identified no personal stake or activity the terminal would impair. A scientist and Center for Biological Diversity attorney described general research interests. A resident who moved closer to the onshore facilities predicted worsening air, traffic and wildlife conditions but did not tie those risks specifically to Delfin’s operations.“A speculative, undifferentiated risk of future harm is not enough,” the court concluded.The same panel had flagged standing during June arguments. Friday’s 13-page opinion made it decisive: Without a member who could show a concrete, project-specific injury, the court lacked authority to decide whether MARAD violated the Deepwater Port Act, National Environmental Policy Act or Administrative Procedure Act. The license stands.The Department of Transportation announced in June that construction of Delfin LNG’s first floating unit was moving forward after a $5 billion investment decision, with exports expected to begin in 2030. At full capacity, the facility will export about 1.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.“This is the first offshore LNG export terminal ever licensed in the United States and getting here took the better part of a decade,” MARAD Administrator Stephen Carmel said in a statement from the time. “That patience is the price of doing something genuinely new.”Willett is an appointee of President Donald Trump. The panel also included U.S. Circuit Judges Irma Ramirez, an appointee of Joe Biden and Jerry E. Smith, a Ronald Reagan appointee.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads