Fifth Circuit Upholds Louisiana's Use of SILs and BACT Determinations in LNG Export Facility Permitting

The Fifth Circuit rejected Sierra Club's challenge to LDEQ's pre-construction permits for a planned LNG export facility, holding that the agency properly relied on EPA's significant impact levels (SILs) guidance and AP-42 emission factors in its emissions analysis. The court affirmed LDEQ's best available control technology (BACT) determinations for gas-fired combustion turbines and thermal oxidizers, applying Louisiana's arbitrary and capricious standard of review.