Here is the body of a brief article in the Times-Picayune today (there is no direct link to this article). This is great news because it means Louisiana will get some revenue from this (when Blanco rejects oil & gas industry proposals a lot of companies go to Texas or Alabama where they know the governors will grant them approval) so yay Blanco! Way to make a smart decision!

Proposed LNG port wins final approval

10:37 a.m., Thursday

The U.S. Maritime Administration has given final approval to a $1 billion liquefied natural gas port proposed by McMoRan Exploration Co. of New Orleans.

The Main Pass Energy Hub will be located about 16 miles east of the mouth of the Mississippi River. McMoRan Exploration has said in the past that once the port wins the necessary approvals, it could take three years to complete the design, engineering and construction of the facility.

When it was initially proposed, the port drew strong opposition because McMoRan planned to use an open-loop system that would rely on water from the Gulf of Mexico to warm the supercooled liquefied gas. Environmentalists said that would kill an unknown amoutn of sea life. And their opposition led Gov. Kathleen Blanco to veto the project last May.

To keep the project going, McMoRan modified its plans and will now use a closed-loop system in which some of imported gas, rather than seawater, will be used to warm the liquefied gas.

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