A proposed liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal that could further wreak havoc on an already over-burned area of Southwest Louisiana is facing pushback from community members and experts who believe that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) doesn’t even know what it’s working with in the first place as it pushes for a damaging project. Commonwealth LNG, a privately held Houston-based company that boasts it was founded “by industry veterans,” is eager to add its presence to an already crowded field in Cameron Parish, where a majority of new LNG projects have sprung up. Its plans for a new facility include adding two flare systems that would pump out greenhouse gases at a rate of up to 1.5 CO2-equivalent tonnes per tonne of LNG, to say nothing of the six liquefaction trains, six pre-treatment trains, and six LNG storage tanks that could function as ticking time bombs were the LNG terminal to get pummeled by the very natural disasters its operator is guilty of worsening.
A FERC draft environmental impact statement (EIS) released in March concluded that the “construction and operation of the project would result in adverse environmental impacts” but that Commonwealth’s “proposed impact avoidance” could somehow mitigate those issues, though “the project would have significant adverse effects on the visual resources of the surrounding areas and environmental justice communities in the region.” Admitting the LNG terminal would harm the most vulnerable communities and render the area unrecognizable is one thing, but relying on Commonwealth — a notoriously opaque new entrant to the LNG field that couldn’t even be bothered to engage with the community it plans to damage — shows FERC just willfully rolling over for polluters. Even worse, FERC doesn’t even seem to have a handle on the on-the-ground situation.
A public comment sent to FERC by community member and geologist John Allaire shows that FERC has got it all wrong when it comes to how Commonwealth LNG will disrupt the area immediately surrounding its planned facility. According to the draft EIS, when it comes to the construction of the LNG terminal’s marina facility, which requires the excavation of 55 acres, “sedimentation and turbidity impacts on aquatic resources from dredging would be localized, temporary to short-term, and not significant.” Allaire, who has lived in the area for more than two decades and whose property is just west of the proposed facility and whose hundreds of acres of wetlands adjoin portions of the project, is calling bullshit on that assessment.
”The reporting by CWLNG to the agencies that the existing sediments in the project area are soft and unconsolidated, is a frequently changing substrate environment and resident organisms would recover quickly after construction of the marine berth are incorrect,” Allaire said in his comment. “It is clear that a comprehensive evaluation of this area was never conducted or incorrectly reported to the agencies. As a degreed geologist I can state that the sediments in this area are neither soft nor unconsolidated. Smaller rocks that have washed off west jetty since its construction, which began in 1896 and the influx of sediments that drain into this area from the west have allowed the sediments in this flat to stabilize and provide a unique habitat that supports oysters, barnacles, mussels and a wide variety of crabs and small bait fish.”
These very species, which draw visitors on guided fishing trips to the exact spot Commonwealth plans to dredge, are critical to Louisiana’s commercial fishing industry. It’s a multibillion-dollar industry facing its own decimation from oil and gas, with the 2010 BP oil spill serving as perhaps the most blatant example of a disaster at the hands of major polluters that decimated Louisiana seafood. Worsening climate change has led to a slew of dangerous hurricanes that have only battered and bruised the industry even further, delivering significantly more financial damage but with little recourse for those who make their living fishing. In places like Cameron, where the oil and gas industry bills itself as some great economic savior, decimating one industry to prop up another only helps to line the pockets of those muscling their way in like Commonwealth LNG.
“Nobody is benefiting from this gas,” said James Hiatt, a Louisiana Bucket Brigade Southwest Louisiana coordinator, during a recent walking tour in the area. “From the time they drill, they pump this stuff … It’s not for any person in the U.S.’s benefit, it’s all for [LNG companies’] profits.” The nonprofit Louisiana Bucket Brigade, which conducted the walking tour in Cameron Parish—including at Allaire’s property—has been vocal in its opposition of any further LNG projects. The grassroots group has made its presence known frequently in meetings related to Commonwealth LNG’s attempt to secure permits and continue the industry’s unabated destruction of the region.
Allaire, who’s been present at those meetings and also wrote a letter to the editor published by American Press slamming Commonwealth LNG, says that Cameron Parish has changed drastically in the time that he’s lived there. He believes coastal erosion will only get worse if companies like Commonwealth LNG are allowed to do as they please in Southwest Louisiana. “People don’t understand, they’re going to bring in like 60,000-plus yards of dump trucks through Holly Beach to backfill this place,” Allaire told me last week as we talked at his property.
Located just down the road from Allaire, Holly Beach is considered the Cajun Riviera and a major draw for visitors. It’s already faced difficulties rebuilding from Hurricane Laura in 2020—and disruption from Commonwealth LNG is guaranteed to only further harm it. FERC acknowledges this, though you’d be hard-pressed to find much motivation from the agency hidden in the 518-page draft EIS to protect the beach, which sits just 900 feet from the proposed project site.
Allaire acknowledges that the population—much like the coastline, sadly—has dwindled in the 24 years he’s been in Cameron Parish. He worries for the folks who remain and who rarely benefit from the LNG industry. The 55 acres Allaire wrote to FERC about only represent a small component of Commonwealth’s larger aspirations; the agency found that nearly 90 acres of wetlands would be lost to terminal construction and that more than 100 acres of land and 47 acres of open water would be disturbed by the proposed LNG facility. With public comment closed for the draft EIS on Monday, it’s anyone’s guess what FERC will ultimately recommend. Commonwealth LNG expects its facility to be operational by the start of the third quarter in 2026. Residents and advocates are hoping that day never comes for Commonwealth LNG.
