The US liquefied natural gas industry faces mounting challenges as legal clashes with activists and contractors combine with a federal permitting freeze to slow the expansion of the world’s biggest exporter. Two multibillion-dollar terminals under construction on the Texas Gulf Coast backed by supermajors ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies suffered fresh setbacks this month, which are expected to lead to delays.
“If the ruling stands, the precedent that would be set by the court’s action has the potential to impact the viability of all federally permitted infrastructure projects because it will be difficult for these projects to attract capital investments until they receive final unappealable permits.” When fully operational, the combined export capacity of the Golden Pass and Rio Grande facilities is set to reach as much as 5.