Docket CP26-532-000

FERC says the scoping notice for a sixth Rio Grande LNG train went out with a distribution error, and it has added one virtual session to a review that runs into 2027

Money & World

The Editorial Team · August 1, 2026

A close photograph of open water filling the whole frame, with wind ripples running in fine parallel lines across a dark blue and grey surface and pale highlights catching the tops of the small waves. The water falls gently out of focus toward the top edge. There is no horizon, no shoreline, no vessel, no person and no text in the frame. A generic water close-up, not a photograph of the Brownsville Ship Channel or of any Rio Grande LNG facility. — *Photo: Whittington / Pexels*

What it changes

If you follow American gas export capacity, the number to take from this notice is 6.03 million tonnes a year, and the qualification to take with it is that the notice describes a proposal at the start of an environmental review rather than a facility with a construction date. On the Commission's own published schedule the draft statement is due in January 2027, the final statement in June 2027, and the 90-day deadline that follows it falls on 23 September 2027. Read the footnote before treating that last date as an approval date. It is the deadline for other federal agencies, and for state agencies acting under federally delegated authority, to reach decisions on the permits a Natural Gas Act project needs, and the notice attaches it to those agencies rather than to the Commission itself. The list of permits underneath runs from a Clean Water Act section 404 standard permit to a Marine Mammal Protection Act incidental harassment authorization, which is a reasonable measure of how many separate approvals sit between a scoping notice and a train. If you live in Cameron County or hold land near the ship channel, the operative dates are sooner and they are two. Written comments must reach the Commission by 5 p.m. Eastern on 31 August. The virtual scoping session is on 19 August between 5 and 7 p.m. Central, with three minutes for each speaker and a court reporter on the line, and anyone who already commented during pre-filing does not need to file again. The session exists because of the distribution error the notice discloses, so a person who was on the mailing list and never received the original notice is the reader it was added for. The effect figures are worth keeping because they are the numbers the environmental statement will be argued over. Construction would disturb about 303 acres for the train, 22 acres for the berth and 383 acres of temporary yards, and would affect 28.7 acres of open water. Operation would add about 277 tons of nitrogen oxides a year. Those are the applicant's and staff's initial figures at the scoping stage, not findings, and the whole point of the exercise about to run is to test them.

The Commission is running an extra session because of a mistake it made.

That is the disclosure buried in a schedule notice for the Rio Grande LNG Expansion Project, which would add a sixth liquefaction train and a third marine jetty to a terminal already under construction on the Brownsville Ship Channel in Cameron County, Texas. The notice says it plainly. Due to an error in the distribution of the Notice of Scoping to the interested stakeholders on the mailing list, staff have decided to conduct one virtual scoping session. It does not say what the error was, who made it, or how many people it reached.

The session runs on 19 August, from 5 to 7 p.m. Central, on a conference line, with three minutes per speaker and a court reporter taking the record. Written comments are due by 5 p.m. Eastern on 31 August.

The project

Rio Grande LNG Train 6, LLC proposes about 6.03 million tonnes a year of additional liquefaction capacity, built entirely inside the terminal that is already authorized and under construction.

Construction would disturb about 303 acres for the train and its supporting infrastructure and about 22 acres for the new berth, plus roughly 383 acres of temporary offsite construction yards that the notice says would be restored. About 51 acres would be kept for permanent operation. In the water, construction would affect 28.7 acres of the ship channel. Once running, the addition would emit about 277 tons of nitrogen oxides a year, 7 tons of fine particulate matter, and 5.8 tons of hazardous air pollutants.

The clock

Pre-filing opened in March, with two sessions held in Port Isabel on 24 and 25 March, and the pre-filing scoping period expired on 8 April. The company has since filed its formal application, and the Commission issued its notice of application on 9 June.

Staff now plan a draft environmental impact statement in January 2027, with 45 days for comment, and a final statement on 25 June 2027. A 90-day deadline of 23 September 2027 then applies, and the notice is specific about whose deadline it is: it binds other federal agencies, and state agencies acting under federally delegated authority, that must issue the permits the project needs.

The document: Department of Energy, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, docket CP26-532-000, Rio Grande LNG Train 6, LLC, Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Rio Grande LNG Expansion Project, Request for Comments on Environmental Issues, Notice of Public Scoping Session, and Schedule for Environmental Review. FR Doc. 2026-15695, filed for public inspection at 08:45 on 31 July 2026, publication date 3 August 2026, signed by Debbie-Anne A. Reese, Secretary, dated 29 July 2026. The raw text of the notice was fetched from federalregister.gov and read in full here; no fetch-tool summary was relied on, and every figure, date and identifier below was matched against that text. Identifiers matched: docket CP26-532-000; the pre-filing docket PF26-3-000; the NEPA tracking number FERC/EISX-019-20-000-1781175659; the authority citation 18 CFR 2.1. Project description as verified: Rio Grande LNG proposes to expand the previously authorized Rio Grande LNG Terminal along the Brownsville Ship Channel in Cameron County, Texas; the expansion would produce about 6.03 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas for export to United States allies and trading partners; it would consist of one new liquefaction train (Train 6), one new marine jetty (Berth 3), and associated facilities and supporting infrastructure; and it would be constructed entirely within the authorized Rio Grande LNG Terminal currently under construction. Land and effects figures as verified: construction would disturb about 303 acres of land for Train 6 and associated infrastructure and about 22 acres for Berth 3; the project would also use about 383 acres of temporary offsite construction yards, which would be restored and revert to former uses; about 51 acres would be maintained for permanent operation; the project would affect 28.7 acres of open water in the Brownsville Ship Channel during construction; and operation would result in about 277 tons per year of nitrogen oxide emissions, 7 tons per year of particulate matter of aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 microns or less, and 5.8 tons per year of hazardous air pollutant emissions. Process history as verified: by notice issued 9 March 2026 in docket PF26-3-000 the Commission opened a scoping period during pre-filing; that scoping period expired 8 April 2026, though staff continued to accept comments during the entire pre-filing process; two scoping sessions were held in Port Isabel, Texas on 24 and 25 March 2026; Rio Grande LNG has now filed a formal application; and the Commission issued its Notice of Application on 9 June 2026. The sentence on which the headline rests is quoted here in full from the notice so that it can be checked against the document: 'Due to an error in the distribution of the Notice of Scoping to the interested stakeholders on the mailing list, we have decided to conduct one virtual scoping session for the Project.' The notice does not say what the error was, who made it, how many stakeholders were affected, or when it was identified, and none of that is asserted below. Dates as verified: written comments must be received by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on 31 August 2026; the virtual scoping session is scheduled for 19 August 2026 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. CST on 1-888-652-5200 with a three-minute limit per commenter and a court reporter present; the schedule is based on issuance of the draft EIS in January 2027 with a 45-day comment period; issuance of the notice of availability of the final EIS is set for 25 June 2027; and the 90-day Federal Authorization Decision Deadline is 23 September 2027. Footnote 6 of the notice states that the Commission's deadline applies to the decisions of other federal agencies, and state agencies acting under federally delegated authority, that are responsible for federal authorizations, permits and other approvals necessary for proposed projects under the Natural Gas Act, per 18 CFR 157.22(a), unless a schedule is otherwise established by federal law. That distinction is preserved in the copy below and the date is not described as a FERC decision deadline. Cooperating agencies named in the notice: the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration of the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Coast Guard. The notice contains no allegation against any party and no statement of any party's motive..

FERC says the scoping notice for a sixth Rio Grande LNG train went out with a distribution error, and it has added one virtual session to a review that runs into 2027

The project

The clock

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