Environmental Groups Challenge Industrial Development Across the Gulf Coast

Environmental groups have amplified efforts to challenge the permitting of large industrial projects in the Gulf Coast region, citing public health and legal compliance concerns, among others.  The range and sophistication of these challenges have appeared to increase over the course of the last several years.

Environmental groups have targeted liquified natural gas (“LNG”) facilities, petrochemical plants, and plastics manufacturing complexes by filing petitions seeking judicial review of both state agency-issued environmental permits and local government land use and zoning approvals. Some of the common themes of these lawsuits include allegations of:

• Use of Improper Emission Factors and Modeling – contending that modeling used for pollution limits is outdated or underestimates potential emissions  
• Failure to Use Best Available Control Technology (“BACT”) – arguing that pollution controls that do not reflect the best available technology for the industry such that lower limits are achievable based on, e.g., other facilities’ standards
• Insufficient Monitoring and Compliance – alleging that the agency failed to provide monitoring provisions that are sufficient to ensure compliance with permitted emissions limits
• Inadequate Environmental Justice (“EJ”) Review – claiming that the agency failed to assess or mitigate adverse impacts on disproportionately affected communities
• Failure to Adhere to Procedural Requirements – arguing that the local government did not strictly comply with public notice and hearing mandates or follow its own ordinances before granting special land use, zoning, development, or building permits 

Environmental groups have raised these issues in challenges to permits for a variety of industrial projects, and each challenge deals with unique circumstances that vary on a case-by-case basis. These cases highlight the need for industry stakeholders to ensure that any permitting or decision-making record is sufficient to withstand a host of different challenges. The below cases provide a sampling of recent challenges in the Gulf Coast region.

In Rise St. James v. Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, 2023-CA-0578 (La. App. 1 Cir. Jan. 19, 2024), environmental groups challenged the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s (“LDEQ”) approval of air permits for a new petrochemical manufacturing complex in St. James Parish, Louisiana, arguing, among other things, that LDEQ had not completed an adequate EJ analysis as required by the State’s Public Trust Doctrine. The Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal dismissed the groups’ petition for review and upheld the permits, holding that, although the Public Trust Doctrine is broad enough to include EJ analyses, the LDEQ’s EJ analysis at issue was sufficient. Despite the current federal administration’s EJ rollback, states may have their own EJ and/or economic and social consideration requirements that remain applicable and must be considered during permitting. Currently these analyses may have a different look than they did when the Louisiana First Circuit decided the Rise St. James case due to a shift in federal guidance and the removal of federal online tools that aided in EJ analyses. However, state laws and jurisprudence continue to provide potential grounds for legal challenge on this issue.

Recent cases in Texas and Louisiana challenging the air permitting of LNG facilities demonstrate that such permits are being carefully and critically examined by environmental groups. In Port Arthur Community Action Network v. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, No. 22-60556 (5th Cir. Aug. 12, 2025), an environmental group challenged the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (“TCEQ”) approval of an air permit for a new LNG facility in Port Arthur, Texas, arguing that stricter emissions limits for a nearby LNG facility still in development should be incorporated into the permit at issue as BACT. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied the group’s challenge, holding that under Texas law, BACT requires emissions control methods that are “already proven … to be operational” and that “theoretical” operability of the unbuilt LNG facility was insufficient to establish BACT for other facilities. Most recently, on August 21, 2025, environmental groups petitioned the U.S. Fifth Circuit for review of two LDEQ air permits for a new LNG facility near Cameron Parish, Louisiana, in Louisiana Bucket Brigade v. Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, No. 25-60455. There, the groups claim a variety of deficiencies with the permits, including that they were based on improper modeling and failed to incorporate appropriate monitoring requirements to ensure compliance with permitting emissions limits. The Fifth Circuit’s decision in this pending case will shed further light on the planning needed to ensure defensible air permits under the increasing scrutiny of permit challengers. 

Given the abundance of varied challenges, industrial project stakeholders, as well as any applicant for an environmental permit or local government land use decision, need to ensure that they develop a robust administrative record that supports the agency decision. 

This is particularly important in an environment where project opponents perceive that agency decision making or enforcement is unfairly biased against them, as the challenges have become more frequent and sophisticated.