Landmark Appellate Win Paves the Way for NextDecade’s $18.4 Billion Rio Grande Liquefied Natural Gas Project

Litigation Daily recognized the win in its Litigators of the Week feature 

• In a case closely watched by the energy industry, an Orrick team secured an important reversal of fortune for our client NextDecade in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In a new opinion this week, the Court overturned the bottom-line of a previous decision, now allowing NextDecade to proceed with its $18.4 billion Rio Grande liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility.
• NextDecade had received project authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which determined that the project’s only significant environmental impact was visual and that it overwhelmingly serves the public’s interest. However, the D.C. Circuit vacated the project authorization, remanding for FERC to conduct a supplemental environmental impact statement with environmental justice data.
• Our Orrick team was then brought into the case and petitioned the court of appeals for rehearing en banc. We explained that the panel’s vacatur of the project authorization was contrary to precedent and unsupported by the claimed errors here, and would cause massive harms to the local community, as well as deprive the world of desperately needed LNG supply. The D.C. Circuit has now sided with our arguments, allowing NextDecade to move forward with project development.
• When completed, NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG project is expected to supply about 6% of the world’s LNG needs.

The Orrick team was led by partners Robert Loeb, Lisa Tonery and Andrew Silverman, with associates Emily Villano, Lisa Bixby, Geoff Shaw and Abby Colella.