How an LNG export terminal fits together: pretreatment, liquefaction trains, storage tanks and a marine berth, the three facility types FERC's 90-day tier would cover.
Key Points
FERC's proposed rule (Docket RM26-2-001) would let new liquefaction trains, LNG tanks and marine berths proceed after a 90-day notice and protest period instead of a case-specific order.
Expansions outside a plant's footprint would be capped at 25 acres of previously disturbed or developed land in industrial or unzoned areas and must reuse designs FERC has already reviewed.
The proposal was published in the Federal Register on Oct. 20, and comments are due Dec. 21; FERC is asking specifically whether the 25-acre limit is right and who should be allowed to protest.
LAKE CHARLES — Federal regulators have proposed letting LNG export terminals add new liquefaction trains, storage tanks and marine berths after 90 days' notice, rather than waiting for a separate commission order on each project. For Louisiana, home to what Cheniere calls the largest operating LNG facility in the country and several more terminals under construction, the Oct. 15 proposal from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could shorten the approval path for the next round of expansions at terminals that are already built.
The commission voted unanimously to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking in Docket RM26-2-001. The proposal would set up a blanket authorization program for LNG plants, modeled on the blanket certificate program FERC has run for pipelines for about 40 years. "American energy dominance requires us to build and maintain the energy infrastructure our country needs without unnecessary delay," FERC Chairman Laura Swett said. The agency says the proposal would "deliver unprecedented regulatory certainty for project developers."
The program would sort work into three tiers. Work that does not raise a plant's authorized capacity, expand its footprint or push equipment past its design limits could go ahead automatically after notice to landowners and the community. Projects that add capacity inside the existing footprint, without exceeding design limits or significantly affecting reliability or public safety, would get a 60-day notice period during which FERC staff or outside parties could protest. New LNG facilities, including liquefaction trains, tanks, berths and their supporting systems, would fall under a 90-day notice and protest period.
The third tier matters most in Calcasieu and Cameron parishes. According to FERC staff's presentation to the commission, a 90-day project could extend beyond a plant's footprint onto adjacent land only if it permanently occupies no more than 25 acres of previously disturbed or developed land or waterways in industrial zones or unzoned areas, and only if it uses the same or upgraded equipment that FERC has already evaluated and authorized at that terminal. Unlike the pipeline program, the LNG version would have no cost cap. Eligibility depends on the type and size of the work.
The proposal also reverses an old FERC position, and the agency says why. The commission rejected blanket treatment for LNG work in 1982, citing possible impacts on ratepayers, and again in 2006, when it judged such work not routine enough to skip case-specific review. Staff told commissioners that FERC no longer regulates rates for export terminals and that the agency and the industry have built up two decades of engineering, safety and environmental experience since then. The commission opened the question with a notice of inquiry on Nov. 20, 2025, and received 18 comments from industry, public interest groups and states.
For operators, the gain is time. Today, a terminal operator planning a fourth or fifth train on land it already controls may have to file a case-specific application and wait for a commission order, with all the schedule risk that involves. Under the proposal, a qualifying project could move on a predictable clock, which lets owners order equipment and bring in contractors on a schedule lenders can rely on. The Energy Department has been making the same argument from the export side. On a tour of Cheniere's Sabine Pass terminal in Cameron Parish on Oct. 14, Under Secretary of Energy Kyle Haustveit said, "If Louisiana was a country, it would be the largest LNG exporter in the world, at north of 10 BCF per day." Cheniere describes Sabine Pass as a $20 billion investment. KPLC reported that Commonwealth LNG's $13 billion terminal in Cameron Parish and Woodside's $17.5 billion Louisiana LNG project south of Sulphur are both expected to begin operating in 2029.
The proposal keeps several checks in place. Blanket holders would still need a determination from the federal pipeline safety agency, PHMSA. For export terminals, prior-notice projects would need an updated Coast Guard letter of recommendation, or a finding that none is needed, along with a letter from the designated state agency and notice to local emergency responders. Prior-notice projects would also get a project-specific environmental review or a categorical exclusion, and FERC would adopt standard environmental and engineering conditions for every project.
Some details are still open, and FERC wants comment on them. The commission is asking whether 25 acres beyond the existing footprint is the right limit, whether expansions outside the fence line need additional criteria, and whether it should set rules on who may protest a prior-notice project. Under the proposal, a protest that is not withdrawn or dismissed sends the project back to case-specific review, and FERC is asking whether it should aim to rule on such protests within a set period, such as 60 days. Parish governments and nearby landowners will want to know how that would work in practice. Operators will be checking how many of the expansions now on the drawing board actually fit inside 25 acres of already disturbed land. For contractors, faster approvals only help if the Gulf Coast has enough craft workers to build the projects.
The proposal was published in the Federal Register on Oct. 20, and comments are due Dec. 21. The notice sets no date for a final rule covering Louisiana's export terminals and the rest of the industry.
Illustration: U.S. Government Accountability Office
