Copyright Resilience
During the past five years, all seven of the fully operational LNG export terminals in the U.S. violated the Clean Air Act, America’s cornerstone law on air pollution, a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) finds. The report comes as the Trump administration has moved to accelerate the approval of new export terminals to sell more U.S. LNG around the world, particularly to Asia and Europe. Several major terminals rarely, if ever, managed to spend a full quarter in compliance with environmental laws over the past three years, the report found. Among the seven terminals that were fully operational by the end of 2024, publicly traded companies appeared among the most consistent violators, with the Cheniere (NYSE:LNG) Sabine Pass terminal and Venture Global (NYSE: VG) Calcasieu Pass Terminal violating the Clean Air Act every single quarter from October 2022 to July 2025, EIP found. A third, the Cameron LNG terminal, faced “high priority” violations 11 out of the past 12 quarters. The companies that exhibited patterns of violations were also the largest emitters of climate-altering greenhouse gases. Cheniere’s Sabine Pass, the largest polluter, reported releasing 6.9 million tons of greenhouse gases during 2023, EIP found, and the company’s Corpus Christi LNG terminal ranked second, with emissions of 3.3 million tons. Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass terminal was third, with 3.1 million tons, and Cameron LNG ranked fourth, producing 2.9 million tons that year. All told, the seven terminals pumped out about 18.2 million tons of greenhouse gases — about as much as adding 3.9 million new cars to the roads. “These trends are especially concerning because all but one of the LNG terminals examined in this report are planning major expansions,” the EIP report noted, citing five projects announced this year, in addition to those already under construction or planned before Trump took office. “If all 33 projects are built, U.S. LNG exports could triple over the next decade.” Five of the seven operating LNG terminals also violated the Clean Water Act at least once during that time period, the report found, racking up nearly 70 permit violations for discharging pollutants like oil and grease, metals, and “suspended solids.” Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal in Cameron, LA, on Oct. 10, 2024. Credit: Julie Dermansky Environmental regulators have hit LNG terminal operators with over $1 million in penalties for violating air pollution laws during that time, EIP found. But in some cases, state regulators in Texas and Louisiana responded by relaxing their standards, allowing three major terminals to modify or amend their permits to allow more pollution. “One example is the Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal in Cameron, Louisiana,” EIP wrote. “After reporting hundreds of permit deviations during its first year of operation, the LDEQ approved a major permit modification that increased emissions limits collectively by approximately 17 percent,” referring to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. Texas regulators with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) declined to comment. LEDQ officials did not respond to a request for comment. “The government is not working for the people, they are working with the industry hand-in-hand,” James Hiatt, a former refinery operator and executive director of For a Better Bayou, a Southwest Louisiana environmental group, said at a press conference. “At what point is enough enough?” ‘Routinely’ Violating the Law The report describes a widespread pattern of permit violations by LNG terminals, ranging from minor to serious. “While violations ranged in severity — from failed performance tests to significant emission events — a review of EPA and state enforcement records reveals that LNG terminals routinely violate environmental laws designed to protect the public against dangerous air pollution,” EIP wrote. Freeport LNG, for example, suffered a massive explosion on June 8, 2022, and has so far drawn $493,804 in penalties associated with that catastrophe. “That represents around half of formal enforcement actions taken and two-thirds of penalties assessed against all LNG export facilities in the U.S. over that time period,” EIP wrote. “An examination of state records shows that the Freeport LNG terminal had a poor track record with environmental compliance long before it exploded, and that the company continues to struggle with consistent compliance.” Environmental enforcers rely heavily on the LNG industry to self-report permit violations, Hiatt noted. EIP’s report also described incidents where companies breached their permits but failed to notify state regulators. “In some cases, LNG companies failed to properly notify regulators when their plants malfunctioned or released excess emissions in violation of their permits,” the report said, citing incidents involving Venture Global, Cameron LNG, and others. An LNG carrier at Chenier’s Corpus Christi LNG terminal on June 20, 2024. According to a new report, the terminal emitted 3.3 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2023. Credit: Julie Dermansky Venture Global, Cheniere, and Cameron LNG did not respond to a request for comment on the report. The federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) database failed to reflect the full number of violations the seven terminals had racked up, the report shows — meaning researchers had to turn to state records to reveal the full extent of violations. The industry’s plans to expand come as the Trump administration has significantly reduced or eliminated enforcement of environmental laws, the report notes. “Environmental enforcement has plummeted during the first six months of the Trump Administration, with far fewer civil judicial cases filed and concluded against polluters compared to the same period under the Biden Administration,” EIP wrote. Last week, the Department of Energy issued a key approval for Venture Global’s CP2 project in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, the latest in a rapid series of approvals for LNG projects issued by the Trump administration, which has cited an “energy emergency” as it greenlights expanded fossil fuel exports. A total of 33 LNG projects are currently planned or in expansion in the U.S., the report notes, meaning the country’s LNG exports could triple over the next 10 years. “There is no ‘energy emergency,’” Jen Duggan, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, said in a statement accompanying the new report. “And fast-tracking approvals for LNG terminals puts the health of local communities, ecosystems, and the climate at risk.” Venture Global’s Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, LA, on Sept.30, 2023. Risky Business Despite the administration’s support, the LNG business can be a risky one. Venture Global has suffered a series of setbacks, including a loss in a major arbitration case with BP, one of its customers, earlier this month. Venture Global has seen its stock price decline over 60 percent since it first went public earlier this year. “As the U.S. doubles down on fossil fuels, pushing allies to buy its LNG, China is seizing the low-carbon mantle through EV and solar dominance, plus aggressive renewables deployment,” energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie’s Vice President Prakash Sharma said today, as WoodMac released its Energy Transition Outlook 2025-2026, which predicts the world is now on track to see 2.6°C of global warming. Emissions at LNG terminals are only one portion of the climate-altering pollution created as natural gas is produced, transported, and burned for fuel. An October 22 report from the UN Environment Program (UNEP) found that natural gas companies and governments are failing to respond when alerted that satellites have detected major pollution incidents at a startling rate. “Responses to alerts issued by UNEP on major emissions detected via satellites have increased twelve-fold in just one year,” the UN’s Eye on Methane report found. “This is real progress, yet it also underscores the gap that remains: Almost 90 per cent of satellite-detected emission events flagged by UNEP still go unaddressed by governments and companies.” The impacts of failing to act on climate change are increasingly apparent. Heat-related deaths have surged 23 percent since the 1990s, reaching 546,0000 per year, the Lancet’s Countdown on Health and Climate Change report, also released today, concludes. “Climate change is already causing massive death and economic suffering from heat exposure, drought, natural disasters, and flooding,” Paul Reed, a professor at Australia’s Charles Sturt University and director of the Future Emergency Resilience Network, said in a statement accompanying the Lancet report. “The health impacts, I would argue, are the proper outcome metrics of human flourishing, but the economic costs are already far surpassing earlier estimates and now represent US$1 trillion and 1% of global domestic product.” “The world’s poor, young, and elderly are the most impacted,” Reed concluded, “whereas the wealthier countries and the richest within those countries are least affected, whilst most to blame.” Teaser image credit: Sabine Pass LNG in Cameron Parish, LA, as seen from across the Sabine Pass in Texas on June 22, 2024. Julie Dermansky, Desmog blog staffer.
