Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Image: Carlos Silva for the Louisiana Bucket Brigade.

All of the country’s operating liquefied natural gas export plants—seven in total—have violated the Clean Air Act at least once in the last five years, according to a new report.

LNG plants in Louisiana and Texas are routinely out of compliance with their air permits, the report by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) shows by making use of public data. And that noncompliance led in 2023 to the emission of over 18 million tons of climate-warming greenhouse gasses and 16,000 pounds of air pollution that bring more immediate human health harms, the report states.

The biggest violator was the Sabine Pass LNG export plant, in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, the first LNG project to receive an export license after the Obama administration in 2015 lifted a decades-long U.S. ban on oil and gas exports. Pumping out nearly 7 million tons of greenhouse gases and nearly 9,000 tons of air pollutants in 2023, the Sabine Pass facility was trailed by Corpus Christi LNG as the second worst offender. Corpus Christi LNG emitted nearly 3.3 million tons of greenhouse gasses and about 3,000 pounds of air pollutants that same year.

However, factoring its 59 emissions “events” between January 2016 and May 2025, Corpus Christi LNG is responsible for more unpermitted pollutants than any other LNG facility in the U.S. (Emission events are defined as unplanned chemical releases outside a facility’s permitted hourly pollution allowances already granted by regulators in their operating licenses.)

Fines for such misbehavior have been modest. Cheniere Energy, which owns both Sabine Pass LNG and Corpus Christi LNG, paid less than $340,000 in fines for those violations. The report notes that the company made more than $94B in revenue in the last five years. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which regulates air and water permits for LNG terminals in the state, extended Corpus Christi LNG’s pollution limits three times since the facility started operating, according to the report.

“It is a system that rewards non-compliance and leaves residents unprotected,” Rhiannon Scott, executive director of the Corpus Christi area-based Coastal Watch Association, said on a press call following the report’s publication.

EIP graphic from report, ‘Terminal Trouble: Pollution Violations at America’s LNG Terminals.’

Like their Louisiana-based counterparts, Corpus Christi LNG and Freeport LNG have also violated the Clean Water Act. Freeport LNG contaminated the water 24 times with zinc, copper, and oil; Corpus Christi LNG did the same 9 times, but with suspended solids, organic carbon, and enterococci, the bacteria that causes urinary tract infections and meningitis. 

The report’s findings appear to undermine many of the narrative anchors of the LNG industry: that it is a greener fuel displacing coal, that the facilities are safe, and that there’s a global demand for more LNG. The Trump administration’s declaration of an “energy emergency” earlier this year attempted to address this alleged demand, despite the LNG market likely to face a glut in the coming years. 

“Given the LNG industry’s terrible compliance record, our conclusion is that state and federal agencies should be slowing down and more carefully scrutinizing new applications for LNG export projects, instead of speeding up permit reviews, as the Trump administration has demanded as part of an alleged energy emergency,” Alexandra Shaykevich, EIP’s research manager and author of the report, said on the same press call. 

Existing LNG facilities. EIP graphic.

Proposed expansion of LNG. EIP graphic.

Residents and organizers in Corpus Christi, Port Arthur, and Port Isabel have long pointed out the damages that come from LNG facilities. Yet the facilities benefit from near universal political support by Texas officials, thanks in part to heavy lobbying. 

Because of this, communities along the Gulf Coast have taken their fight against the facilities from local city halls to foreign banks and international governments invested in the LNG trade. They have also engaged in lawsuits against the regulators approving the projects. A federal court ruling in August 2024 revoked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of the Rio Grande LNG project in Port Isabel, Texas, saying the regulator needed to do more analysis on its environmental justice and air quality impacts on the area. The same court would later reverse the decision, however, allowing Rio Grande LNG to continue construction.

The facility will be one of the largest facilities in the U.S. if built out to the wishes of its parent company, Houston-based NextDecade. There are currently 33 LNG export plant projects in development in the U.S., a majority of them in Texas and Louisiana.