Report says all operating US LNG terminals have violated pollution limits US News

A new report finds that every fully operational liquefied natural gas terminal in the United States has violated federal pollution limits in recent years.

The analysis of public records comes as the Trump administration aims to speed up approval of new export terminals in an effort to sell more domestic liquefied natural gas to Europe and Asia. Joe Biden had previously suspended liquefied natural gas exports, which Donald Trump lifted on his first day back in office.

“The LNG industry portrays itself as environmentally friendly, but companies do not consistently comply with air and water pollution control laws that LNG terminals must follow,” says the report from the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit research organization.

The Guardian has contacted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for comment.

The United States has been the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas since 2023. The US president aims to boost exports further, including by directing agencies to speed up approval of new terminals and threatening foreign countries with steep tariffs if they refuse to buy LNG from the United States.

Late last year, seven U.S. LNG export terminals were operating at full capacity: three in Louisiana, two in Texas, and one each in Maryland and Georgia.

Between October 2022 and July 2025, all seven of these plants were in non-compliance with the Clean Air Act for at least a quarter, according to an analysis of data from the EPA and state governments.

“Given the LNG industry’s poor compliance record, state and federal agencies should slow down and examine new permit applications more carefully rather than speed up permit reviews,” he said. Jane Dugan, Executive Director of the Environmental Integrity Project.

Some plants were more violated than others. The most common violators, Sabine Pass and Calcasieu Pass stations, both in Cameron, Louisiana, have not met certain air pollution standards under the Clean Air Act since 2022.

But the most enforcement orders — and the highest financial penalties — were imposed on the Freeport LNG terminal in Texas, which experienced a major explosion in June 2022 that forced the facility to shut down for eight months. State and federal regulators issued $493,804 in fines to the plant after the explosion, and the facility attracted an additional $175,800 in fines in the previous two years.

Five of the seven LNG export terminals were also in non-compliance with the Clean Water Act during the same period, with four of the terminals in violation of the regulation for at least two quarters between April 2022 and July 2025.

In some cases, violations included the release of illegal amounts of bacteria, zinc, oil and other pollutants into waterways. In other cases, station managers failed to submit monitoring reports on water discharges into waterways.

The authors say the review shows that export terminals routinely violate key environmental protection laws.

“These findings are not at all surprising to anyone who has spent time near these facilities,” said Anne Rolfes, executive director of the Louisiana Bucket Task Force, which opposes fossil fuel construction.

Despite this evidence, managers of three of the worst LNG terminals are seeking a license for major expansions in the coming years.

These include Sabine Pass and Cameron LNG, both in Louisiana, which have not been in compliance with the Clean Air Act for 12 and 11 of the past 12 quarters, respectively, and Corpus Christi LNG in Texas, which has had nine water pollution violations over the past five years.

Venture Global, the company behind the Calcasieu Pass terminal in Louisiana — which has also been out of compliance with the Clean Air Act every quarter for the past three years — plans to build two new LNG terminals nearby.

“The consequences of allowing Venture Global to build those sites could be devastating,” Rolfs said.

The Guardian has contacted Venture Global for comment.

In addition to these planned expansions and new terminals, four new LNG terminals are already under construction, three in Texas and one in Louisiana. An expansion of the Elba Liquefaction terminal in Georgia is also underway.

These five projects are already on track to increase the country’s LNG exports from the United States by 60% annually and create more opportunities for endangering communities. The companies have also proposed 28 other projects – 19 new export terminals and nine expansions of existing facilities – that could increase the health threat.

The authors of the new report say the rapid growth of the LNG industry is likely to hurt consumers, citing a study by the Biden-era Energy Department that found that increasing LNG exports would… Increase in natural gas prices locally For Americans by more than 30%.

This expansion will also harm the climate. Sourced liquefied natural gas emits far more greenhouse gas emissions than coal, despite claims by the fossil fuel industry that it is a cleaner alternative, a major study found last year. Robert Howarth, an environmental scientist at Cornell University who authored the study, praised the new research, saying it “did an excellent job of showing how dirty the LNG industry is.”

“In a sane world, we would stop allowing any more gas export facilities now, immediately,” Rolfes said.