Cameron groups sue over coastal gas pipeline permit

Louisiana fishermen, local environmental groups, and the Sierra Club sued in Cameron Parish to challenge a coastal use permit for the proposed Marais Pipeline. Filed Friday in the 38th Judicial District Court, the petition argues that state regulators failed to account for the project’s cumulative effects on climate change and coastal erosion. The 44-mile, 48-inch pipeline is planned to move 1.9 billion cubic feet of methane gas per day to supply the Venture Global CP2 LNG export terminal, an about $33 billion project under construction near the Calcasieu Ship Channel entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. The lawsuit says the pipeline would fill or disturb more than 800 acres of coastal wetlands, violating a precedent from an October decision in a related case involving the Commonwealth LNG terminal. The suit also points to federal changes: the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decided on June 18, as part of approving the Eastern Gas Transmission and Storage Project, to stop conducting cumulative impact analyses for major infrastructure reviews.