FERC is accepting environmental scoping comments through September 24 on Gulf South Pipeline Company's Texas Gateway Project, a proposed pipeline stretching roughly 155 miles from East Texas to new delivery facilities in Beauregard Parish.

The public has until Thursday afternoon to submit comments that could help determine what federal regulators examine as they prepare an environmental impact statement for a proposed $1.4 billion natural gas pipeline ending in Beauregard Parish.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is accepting environmental scoping comments on the Texas Gateway Project through 5 p.m. Eastern, or 4 p.m. Central, on September 24.

The deadline does not represent a final decision on the pipeline. Instead, it is part of the process FERC is using to determine which environmental effects, route alternatives and other issues should receive detailed analysis before the commission considers whether to authorize the project.

For Southwest Louisiana, the proceeding involves significantly more than a pipeline passing somewhere nearby.

The proposed line ends here.

A 155-mile pipeline terminating in Beauregard Parish

Gulf South Pipeline Company, a subsidiary of Boardwalk Pipelines, filed its formal application with FERC on June 26.

The proposed Texas Gateway Project would construct approximately 155 miles of new 36-inch and 42-inch natural gas pipeline, beginning near Gulf South's existing Carthage Compressor Station in Panola County, Texas and continuing across East Texas into Beauregard Parish.

At the Louisiana end, Gulf South proposes three new meter and regulator stations associated with delivery points in Beauregard Parish near the Gillis area.

FERC's application notice puts the estimated project cost at approximately $1.4 billion and says the system would provide up to 1.8 million dekatherms per day of additional firm natural gas transportation capacity.

Gulf South says the project is intended to connect natural gas supplies with LNG, industrial and utility demand in Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana. The company's current project materials say it expects the system to enter service in the second half of 2029, subject to federal approval and other required permits and land rights.

Nearly 3,000 acres could be disturbed during construction

FERC's environmental notice provides a clearer picture of the project's physical footprint.

Federal regulators estimate construction of the pipeline and aboveground facilities would temporarily disturb approximately 2,970 acres. About 991 acres would remain in use for permanent project operations after construction, while the remainder would be restored and returned to previous uses.

Approximately 44% of the proposed pipeline route would follow existing pipeline, utility or road rights-of-way, according to FERC.

The remainder includes new greenfield pipeline construction.

FERC staff have already identified several issues that warrant further environmental study, including waterbody crossings, two designated Scenic Rivers, wetlands, federally managed land, endangered-species habitat and the El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail.

The proposal could also permanently convert approximately 29 acres of forested wetlands to emergent wetlands, according to the commission's initial review.

Those findings are not FERC's final determination of the project's environmental effects. They identify subjects the agency expects to examine through the environmental impact statement.

Beauregard Parish already changed its position

The federal comment period comes after the Beauregard Parish Police Jury altered its own position on the project.

During its July 14 meeting, the Police Jury voted to change its FERC submission from a "Letter of Support" to a "Letter of No Objection."

That change did not place the parish in formal opposition to Texas Gateway. It did, however, remove the parish government's active endorsement while the federal review remained underway.

The distinction is increasingly relevant now that FERC has moved into a much deeper environmental review of the project.

What FERC is asking the public to comment on

The current deadline is specifically part of environmental scoping.

FERC says the purpose is to identify the important environmental issues that should be analyzed in the project's environmental impact statement.

Comments can address potential environmental effects, information or studies regulators should consider, and reasonable alternatives that could avoid or reduce those effects.

FERC specifically lists possible alternatives including:

• taking no action on the project;
• alternative pipeline routes or smaller route deviations;
• different sites for aboveground facilities; and
• alternatives involving compression facilities.

For landowners along the proposed route, that means comments do not have to address the entire $1.4 billion project.

Specific information about an individual property, wetland, waterway, historic site, access problem or potential alternative route can become part of the federal administrative record.

FERC's guidance says specificity makes comments more useful to the commission.

The project could also affect private land rights

FERC's notice contains another section particularly relevant to property owners along the proposed route.

Gulf South may seek easements from landowners to construct, operate and maintain the pipeline.

Landowners are not required to voluntarily enter into an easement agreement. However, FERC explains that if the commission eventually issues the project a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, the Natural Gas Act may allow the pipeline company to pursue condemnation proceedings when an easement agreement cannot be reached.

Those proceedings would occur in court. FERC itself does not determine compensation or oversee the exercise of eminent domain.

That distinction makes the current environmental review important for affected property owners even though this week's deadline is not an easement negotiation or condemnation proceeding.

How to submit a comment

Individuals can submit a short, text-only comment through FERC's eComment system without creating a full FERC account. Longer comments, attachments, photographs or filings on behalf of organizations must go through the agency's eFiling system.

Comments should reference:

Docket No. CP26-547-000 — Texas Gateway Project

Submit a FERC eComment

FERC says comments must be received by 5 p.m. Eastern Time Thursday, September 24 — 4 p.m. Central Time in Louisiana.

One distinction is worth noting: filing a comment does not make someone a formal intervenor in the proceeding. The original deadline for timely motions to intervene was July 31. FERC says late intervention requests may still be submitted but must demonstrate good cause for being filed after the deadline.

This is not the end of the federal review

Thursday's deadline closes the current environmental scoping period, not all future public participation.

FERC currently plans to issue a draft environmental impact statement in April 2027, followed by another 45-day public-comment period.

The commission's schedule calls for the final environmental impact statement to be issued by September 24, 2027. FERC currently anticipates issuing its final order on the project no later than December 16, 2027.

The project would also require decisions or consultations involving agencies including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and Louisiana State Historic Preservation Office.

For now, the immediate deadline is much closer.

Residents and property owners who want a specific environmental concern, route issue or alternative considered during FERC's initial analysis have until 4 p.m. Central Thursday to put it into the record.

About the Author

Dalton Barron covers real estate, infrastructure, development, public records and the underlying numbers shaping Southwest Louisiana for 337.NEWS.

Barron is also a licensed Louisiana real estate agent with NextHome Bayou Pines.

Dalton Barron
NextHome Bayou Pines
Jeremy Jones, Broker/Owner
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