A panel of federal regulators on Thursday authorized the construction of a major natural gas export project — moving the contentious CP2 terminal one step closer to final approval.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the Louisiana terminal, which could export large amounts of U.S.-produced gas.
Two commissioners, one Democrat and one Republican, supported the project, while another Democrat opposed it.
The CP2 terminal is not yet fully authorized; though FERC's approval clears a major hurdle for the project, it still needs permission from the Department of Energy to ship natural gas abroad.
FERC is an independent and bipartisan panel of energy regulators, and while its decisions can be political, this move is not as tied to the Biden administration as the forthcoming Energy Department decision would be.
The administration, which has temporarily stopped approving some natural gas export projects, now faces a controversial choice.
Gas exports have come under significant scrutiny from climate advocates and the progressive left in general. These opponents argue that in shipping natural gas abroad, the U.S. is spreading the use of the planet-warming fuel and exacerbating climate change.
Mahyar Sorour, director of Beyond Fossil Fuels policy at the Sierra Club, said that the project’s approval would both “perpetuate the climate crisis” and be “hugely detrimental for the communities who are already overburdened with air pollution.”
Sorour added, in a conversation before the FERC approval, that the Biden administration ought not to approve the project.
“We believe … taking into consideration the economic, the climate and the environmental justice costs of CP2, that they would come to the same determination that we have, which is that they shouldn’t get DOE approval,” she said.
Supporters of the project and others like it argue, however, that sending more U.S. gas abroad will reduce foreign dependence on other countries including Russia for natural gas.
They also argue that increasing the global gas supply could reduce reliance on even dirtier fuels like coal.
The Biden administration announced in January that it would pause new approvals of terminals that would ship gas to countries with which the U.S. doesn’t have a free trade agreement. The pause comes as the Energy Department reconsiders its approval criteria for these infrastructure projects. It does not affect existing gas exports.
