Rio Grande plant expansion approved

(The Center Square) – The developers of a sprawling LNG export plant on the Texas coast challenged in court by local and environmental groups for more than a decade received the final approval by federal regulators and can begin construction on two new production units.

Potential legal challenges remain.

The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted March 12 to authorize NextDecade Corp. to begin construction on the fourth and fifth production units at the company’s 984-acre tract near the Gulf of America along the Brownsville Ship Channel. There is potential to increase the export facility’s annual output from 17.6 million tons to 27 million tons.

Houston-based NextDecade is now building the first three production units, also called “trains,” and expects to begin operating the first two of them in 2027 and the third in 2028.

“The authorization to proceed with Trains 4 and 5 is a critical milestone that reaffirms our commitment to providing global markets with reliable, Texas-produced energy,” said NextDecade Chairman and CEO, M...