Sponsors (4)
The bill speeds and centralizes permit and appellate processes to keep LNG/natural-gas projects moving and reduce project delays—benefiting industry and energy continuity—but does so by narrowing remedies and procedural access for challengers, raising environmental, accountability, and taxpayer risk for nearby and disadvantaged communities.
Owners/operators of covered natural-gas/LNG facilities (utilities and energy companies) can keep permits and continue construction or operation while agencies fix legal or environmental-review deficiencies, preserving energy supply continuity and related jobs in local/rural economies.
Project applicants get faster, more geographically predictable appellate review—appeals go to the circuit where the facility is located, transfer motions are allowed, and a 90-day deadline for federal-law claims is imposed—reducing litigation delay and uncertainty for projects.
The bill defines key terms (e.g., 'covered application' and 'covered facility'), giving applicants and regulators clearer rules about which LNG export and siting applications fall under the Act and reducing ambiguity in permit processes.
Nearby communities and environmental groups lose a key remedy because courts are barred from vacating or setting aside approvals, allowing facilities to operate despite judicial findings of environmental-law violations and weakening enforcement and accountability.
Tighter procedural rules (a strict 90‑day filing window and restrictions on forum-shopping) reduce challengers' ability to bring federal-law claims or choose more favorable courts, risking that late-but-meritorious challenges will be foreclosed.
Allowing projects to proceed during remediation of flawed environmental reviews could disproportionately expose environmental-justice and nearby communities to pollution, safety risks, and other harms before corrective measures are completed.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Prevents courts from vacating permits for covered LNG facilities, remands violations to agencies, centralizes appeals in the local circuit, and imposes a 90-day filing window for challenges.
Introduced May 22, 2025 by Rafael Edward Cruz · Last progress May 22, 2025
Bars courts from vacating or setting aside permits, licenses, or approvals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities even if a court finds the agency's environmental review violated federal law; instead, the court must remand the matter to the agency for correction while the permit remains in effect. Assigns exclusive, original federal appellate jurisdiction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the circuit where the facility is or will be located, requires expedited docketing, and imposes a 90-day deadline for most federal-law challenges after final agency action is published in the Federal Register.