An appeals court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit that challenged the federal approval of a deepwater natural gas export terminal off the Louisiana coast, in a win for the Trump administration.
The Maritime Administration issued a license last year to Delfin LNG for its floating liquefaction facility. A three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the environmental groups behind the lawsuit had failed to demonstrate that the MARAD decision harmed any of their members — a key procedural step to determine if they have legal standing.
“Because Petitioners have not shown an injury in fact fairly traceable to MARAD’s licensing decision, we lack power to reach the merits,” said Judge Don Willett, a Trump appointee writing the opinion for the court. “We therefore DENY the petition for review.”
Judge Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee, and Judge Irma Ramirez, a Biden pick, also joined the brief opinion. The parties in the case could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday.
