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Energy and permitting policy, read from the public record.

Register entry No. 0015ReportCP2 LNG

FERC opens scoping on Venture Global's CP2 LNG Expansion Project, Docket Nos. CP26-530 and CP26-533

The expansion would add 11.7 million tonnes a year of liquefaction in Cameron Parish and a 227,000-horsepower compressor station in Texas. Scoping comments are due Sept. 11, and staff has not yet said whether it will write an EA or an EIS.

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Summary

Oral comments at the two sessions FERC staff has scheduled for the CP2 LNG Expansion Project will be taken one at a time, in front of a court reporter, with no presentation from the Commission [1]. Those sessions are part of the scoping period that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission opened in a notice published August 17, 2026, at 91 FR 53239, for the joint application of Venture Global CP2 LNG, LLC and Venture Global CP Express, LLC under sections 3 and 7 of the Natural Gas Act, Docket Nos. CP26-530-000 and CP26-533-000 [1, 2]. Written scoping comments are due September 11 [1].

What the record shows

The terminal. The application, filed May 26, 2026, would expand the CP2 LNG export terminal that is under construction on the east side of the Calcasieu Ship Channel in Cameron Parish, Louisiana [2]. According to the scoping notice, the Cameron Parish work would include [1]:

  • six liquefaction blocks, each with two single mixed refrigerant process units;
  • a 720-megawatt power plant with five gas turbines and five heat recovery steam generators;
  • three gas pre-treatment facilities, two nitrogen removal units, three thermal oxidizers and five boil-off gas compressors; and
  • a third LNG loading dock, Berth 3, inside the approved marine footprint on Monkey Island.

The applicants put the added peak liquefaction and export capacity at about 11.7 million metric tonnes per annum [2]. The terminal work would disturb about 69.2 acres, all inside the footprint FERC has already authorized [1].

The pipeline. On the CP Express system, the project would add the Silsbee Compressor Station, a new 227,000-horsepower site in Jasper County, Texas, connected to the approved pipeline by two 1,000-foot, 48-inch laterals [1]. The June notice describes the added firm capacity as about 1,900 million cubic feet per day and gives CP Express’s cost estimate as $825,971,448 [2]. The compressor station would disturb about 73.7 acres during construction, with 52.8 acres kept for operation [1].

The scoping notice itself. Staff lists nine resource areas the environmental document will cover, from geology and soils to “reliability and safety” [1]. The U.S. Coast Guard has said it intends to be a cooperating agency [1]. The notice also opens consultation under section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act with the state historic preservation offices, and it reminds landowners along the pipeline that a certificate under section 7 would carry the right of eminent domain [1].

Staff’s first questions. On August 13, four days before the notice was published, FERC environmental project manager Shannon Crosley sent Venture Global an environmental information request and asked for complete answers within 20 days of the letter [3]. The letter says staff “will establish a schedule for completing the environmental document based upon an expectation of timely and complete responses” [3]. Among the items:

  • Ship traffic. The application says the roughly 400 LNG carriers a year already authorized for CP2 should be enough for the expansion, but a July 17 Coast Guard filing said a waterway suitability workshop “confirmed the suitability of the waterway for up to 750 carriers” [3]. Staff asked Venture Global to clarify the number of ships and their effects on fisheries and marine mammals [3].
  • Workspace. Staff flagged a 140-foot permanent right-of-way in one figure against an 85-foot width in the text, and asked why the compressor station would use 20.9 acres during construction but 52.8 acres in operation in two of the application’s tables [3].
  • Historic properties. Staff told the applicants that, for section 106 purposes, the expansion “is considered a separate project” from the original CP2 dockets, CP22-21 and CP22-22, and asked for new letters to the Louisiana and Texas preservation officers and to tribes [3].
  • Facilities outside FERC’s jurisdiction, including the carbon capture and storage system that the application places partly outside the terminal site [3].
  • Air quality. Staff asked for AERSCREEN or AERMOD modeling of the Silsbee station and copies of state air permit applications [3].

Where it sits in the process

FERC authorized the original CP2 terminal and CP Express pipeline on June 27, 2024 [5]. The June 2026 notice lists two rehearing orders after that authorization and a 2025 order denying rehearing and stay, and says an appeal, Dardar v. FERC, No. 24-1291, is pending in the D.C. Circuit [2]. On the export side, DOE conditionally authorized non-free trade agreement exports of 1,446 Bcf a year in Order No. 5264 on March 19, 2025, and issued a final order, No. 5264-A, on October 21, 2025, running through December 31, 2050 [6].

Two requests to raise the terminal’s output were already pending before this one. In Docket No. CP26-55-000, filed December 29, 2025, Venture Global asked FERC to raise the authorized peak capacity of the existing design from 28.0 to 35.0 MTPA [5]. A matching DOE request, filed February 20, 2026, seeks about 427 Bcf a year in added non-FTA exports [6].

What comes next on the CP2 expansion, and when?

  • August 25 and 26: scoping sessions in Cameron, Louisiana, and Buna, Texas [1].
  • 20 days from August 13: Venture Global’s response to the information request is due [3].
  • September 11: scoping comments close [1].
  • After scoping: staff decides between an EA and an EIS and issues a notice of schedule; an EIS would open another comment period on a draft [1]. FERC’s June notice says that within 90 days of that notice, staff will either complete the environmental review or issue a schedule, and that other federal authorizations are due within 90 days of the final EA or EIS [2].
  • October 2: comments, protests and interventions close at DOE on the separate non-FTA export application, Docket No. 26-78-LNG [4].

DOE’s notice describes that application, filed July 7, as a request for 620.5 Bcf a year to both FTA and non-FTA countries on a non-additive basis, for 20 years after exports begin plus a three-year make-up period [4]. DOE says it will issue no final decision until it has met its obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act [4].

What the record does not show

  • The type of review. The notice leaves the choice between an environmental assessment and an environmental impact statement until after scoping [1].
  • The vessel count. The record holds three figures: about 400 authorized carriers, a waterway found suitable for up to 750, and For a Better Bayou’s reading of about 735 transits a year [3, 9]. Staff has asked; Venture Global has not yet answered [3].
  • Acreage at Silsbee. The scoping notice gives 73.7 acres for construction, while staff cites 20.9 acres in the application’s tables [1, 3].
  • Carbon capture and other outside facilities. Staff has asked for owners, sizes, land needs and permit status for every non-jurisdictional facility, the CCS system included; on the compressor station’s interconnections, the application says that information “will be provided in a supplemental filing” [3]. Sierra Club says it is unclear whether the off-site pieces for the original terminal “have been approved, or even formally proposed” [8].
  • State permits. The application names water quality certifications from the Railroad Commission of Texas and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality [2]. No certification decision is in the record yet.
  • Investment timing. Venture Global’s August 11 earnings release says it is “targeting FID on the CP2 Expansion in early 2027 with first production in late 2028,” subject to approvals [7]. No schedule set by FERC or DOE yet backs those dates.

Positions on the record

Venture Global. The company’s quarterly release says it “filed for CP2 brownfield expansion permits with FERC and non-FTA export authorization at DOE” during the second quarter, and that the original CP2 project remains on schedule for first LNG in the second half of 2027 [7].

Sierra Club. In a June 30 protest, Sierra Club calls the proposal “a 42% expansion” and argues it “is inconsistent with the public interest and the application should be denied” [8]. It asks that “FERC should prepare an environmental impact statement, rather than an environmental assessment,” that cumulative effects on air and fisheries be studied, and that FERC deny what it calls the applicants’ “request for an exceptionally accelerated approval timeline” [8]. It also disputes the applicants’ reliance on the conflict in Iran, saying those issues are “entirely outside FERC’s delegated authority” [8].

For a Better Bayou. The Lake Charles group, which moved to intervene, says the application runs over 1,121 pages and leaves hard questions to other agencies. “That is not cumulative impact analysis,” its filing says [9]. The group estimates that CP2 and the expansion together would add about 2,300 tons a year of criteria pollutants, cites a community hydrophone study on shrimp and crab landings at the Port of Cameron, and asks FERC to bar in-water work during three major migratory pulses in the Calcasieu [9].

Cameron Parish Lions Club. In a June 30 letter, Stephanie Rodrigue, the club’s president and a former Cameron Parish schools superintendent, backs the expansion. She writes that more than 75 percent of CP2’s 385 permanent jobs are held by local hires and cites “$4b+” in new local tax revenue from CP2 and CP Express [10]. “Venture Global isn’t perfect, and neither are we,” the letter says [10].

Whether staff answers the EIS request with an EIS, or with an assessment and a schedule, is the next decision the docket is waiting on.

Reading-room questions

Questions readers bring to this record, answered from the documents cited below.

When are scoping comments due on the CP2 LNG Expansion Project?
FERC must receive them by 5:00 p.m. Eastern on September 11, 2026, in Docket Nos. CP26-530-000 and CP26-533-000 [1]. Anyone who commented before the dockets opened on May 26 has to refile for those comments to count [1].
Where are the CP2 expansion scoping meetings?
FERC staff will take oral comments from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Central on August 25 at the Cameron Parish Police Jury Multi-Purpose Building in Cameron, Louisiana, and on August 26 at the Buna Bridle Club Event Center in Buna, Texas [1]. Comments are taken one-on-one with a court reporter, with no formal presentation [1].
How much would the CP2 expansion add to CP2 LNG's capacity?
About 11.7 million metric tonnes per annum of peak liquefaction capacity, or roughly 620.5 Bcf a year of natural gas, according to the applications [2, 4]. That is on top of a separate pending request to raise the existing terminal's authorized peak from 28.0 to 35.0 MTPA [5].
Will FERC prepare an environmental impact statement for the CP2 expansion?
That has not been decided. The notice says staff will choose between an environmental assessment and an EIS after scoping [1]. Sierra Club has asked for an EIS [8].
Can the public comment on the DOE export application for the CP2 expansion?
Yes. DOE's notice in Docket No. 26-78-LNG takes protests, comments and motions to intervene until 4:30 p.m. Eastern on October 2, 2026 [4].

Note on sourcing

The scoping notice opens the environmental review; it is not a finding on the project's effects or a decision on the application. The project description is taken from the Federal Register notices and FERC staff's August 13 information request, not from Venture Global's 1,000-plus-page application itself, and this report does not draw on the application's resource reports directly. Venture Global's responses to the August 13 request were not in the record as of publication. The figures attributed to For a Better Bayou (vessel transits, emissions tonnage, refrigerant volume) and to the Cameron Parish Lions Club letter (jobs and tax revenue) are those groups' own statements and have not been checked against the application. The D.C. Circuit appeal of the original CP2 authorization is described as pending in FERC's June notice; this report does not draw on the court docket.

Sources

  1. Venture Global CP2 LNG, LLC, Venture Global CP Express, LLC; Notice of Scoping Period Requesting Comments on Environmental Issues for the Proposed CP2 LNG Expansion Project, and Notice of Public Scoping Sessions, 91 FR 53239 (FR Doc. 2026-16739)Federal Register (FERC), August 17, 2026 · federalregister.gov
  2. Venture Global CP2 LNG, LLC, Venture Global CP Express, LLC; Notice of Application and Establishing Intervention Deadline, 91 FR 35679 (FR Doc. 2026-11881)Federal Register (FERC), June 12, 2026 · federalregister.gov
  3. Environmental Information Request, CP2 LNG Expansion Project, Docket Nos. CP26-530-000 and CP26-533-000 (FERC Accession No. 20260813-3074)Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Office of Energy Projects, August 13, 2026 · elibrary.ferc.gov
  4. Venture Global CP2 LNG, LLC; Application for Long-Term Authorization To Export Liquefied Natural Gas to Non-Free Trade Agreement Nations, Docket No. 26-78-LNG, 91 FR 48848 (FR Doc. 2026-15642)Federal Register (DOE Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office), August 3, 2026 · federalregister.gov
  5. Venture Global CP2 LNG, LLC; Notice of Application, Establishing Intervention Deadline, and Waiver of Pre-Filing Process, Docket No. CP26-55-000, 91 FR 2772 (FR Doc. 2026-01147)Federal Register (FERC), January 22, 2026 · federalregister.gov
  6. Venture Global CP2 LNG, LLC; Application for Limited Amendment of Authorization To Export Liquefied Natural Gas to Non-Free Trade Agreement Nations, Docket No. 21-131-LNG, 91 FR 12177 (FR Doc. 2026-04828)Federal Register (DOE Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office), March 12, 2026 · federalregister.gov
  7. Venture Global Reports Second Quarter 2026 ResultsVenture Global, August 11, 2026 · ventureglobal.com
  8. Protest and Motion to Intervene of Sierra Club, Docket Nos. CP26-530-000 and CP26-533-000 (FERC Accession No. 20260630-5224)Sierra Club (filed with FERC), June 30, 2026 · elibrary.ferc.gov
  9. Motion to Intervene and Comments of For a Better Bayou, Docket Nos. CP26-530-000 and CP26-533-000 (FERC Accession No. 20260630-5266)For a Better Bayou (filed with FERC), June 30, 2026 · elibrary.ferc.gov
  10. Letter in support of Venture Global's CP2 Expansion, Docket Nos. CP26-530-000 and CP26-533-000 (FERC Accession No. 20260630-5274)Cameron Parish Lions Club (filed with FERC), June 30, 2026 · elibrary.ferc.gov

Subject headings

Cross-references

Other register entries filed under the same subject headings.

  1. No. 0026 · Record of decision · 5 shared headingsFERC staff issues final EIS for Sabine Pass Stage 5 LNG expansion, Docket No. CP24-75-001
  2. No. 0030 · Report · 3 shared headingsFERC opens scoping on Longboard LNG import terminal off Oʻahu, Docket No. PF26-10-000
  3. No. 0031 · Floor order · 2 shared headingsSenate order sets Nov. 9 cloture vote on motion to proceed to H.R. 2347, the vehicle for a permitting package