Cheniere, the largest U.S. exporter of liquefied natural gas, boasts that it’s helping to “improve local air quality in communities globally” because the cleaner burning fuel it ships displaces coal in power plants. But in the Corpus Christi, Texas region, where the fuel is prepared for shipment, the company is making air quality worse -with the consent of state regulators. Cheniere’s massive LNG plant, on the outskirts of the Gulf Coast city, has exceeded its permitted limits for emissions of pollutants such as soot, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) hundreds of times since it started up in 2018, according to a Reuters review of regulatory documents. Instead of levying penalties for such violations, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has responded by granting Cheniere big increases in the plant’s pollution limits, the documents show. The facility is now allowed to […]