Conflict over San Juan Bay: New Fortress Energy's dredging project
Background and Legal Tug-of-War
The plan to artificially deepen the shipping channel in San Juan Bay (Puerto Rico) has been a highly contentious issue for years. At the heart of the controversy is the US energy company New Fortress Energy (NFE) and its subsidiary, NFE Energía, LLC. NFE operates a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in the harbor; critics allege that it was originally built in 2019 without the necessary approval from the US regulatory agency FERC and, for a long time, operated under a temporary permit as a small "micro-facility." In 2022, an alliance of environmental groups—including El Puente and the Center for Biological Diversity—filed a lawsuit in US federal court to halt the US Army Corps of Engineers' dredging project, arguing that it would obstruct Puerto Rico’s legally mandated transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 and endanger marine wildlife. Although an appellate court dismissed the lawsuit in late 2024, local opposition remained undiminished.
Recent Objections from the Opposition
The debate escalated further in the summer of 2026 after NFE officially applied for a permit to deepen the harbor basin to approximately 12.5 meters. A broad coalition of environmental, community, and religious organizations—including Toabajeños en Defensa del Ambiente and the Mesa de Diálogo Martin Luther King—filed formal complaints with federal authorities in June 2026. Activists accuse NFE of pursuing an "illegal expansion via 'salami tactics'." Deepening the harbor basin would allow the docking of LNG tankers up to five times larger than the vessels originally authorized. The groups vocally criticize the fact that this massive capacity expansion lacks both a comprehensive environmental impact assessment (EIA) and functional evacuation and emergency plans for densely populated neighboring communities like Cataño. An accident at the island's most important logistics port would threaten not only the immediate safety of local residents but also the food supply for the entire region. Furthermore, critics point out that NFE intends to use the project covertly to facilitate a massive gas pipeline connecting San Juan to temporary generators in Palo Seco.
**Likely Outcome and Timeline**
Despite immense public pressure, New Fortress Energy is well-positioned to ultimately secure regulatory approval for the dredging operations. In its assessments, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers argues that the work is confined to a harbor basin that has historically been used for industry and significantly altered, meaning there would be no direct damage to pristine ecosystems or coral reefs. Additionally, both the U.S. federal government and local authorities classify the LNG infrastructure as critical to the island's notoriously unstable power supply.
However, the timeline faces significant risks due to threatened waves of litigation: regulatory approval for the dredging application is expected in late summer or autumn of 2026. Immediately following approval, environmental lawyers from organizations such as Earthjustice will likely attempt to block the start of construction through urgent court motions and injunctions. Since courts generally prioritize energy security, this construction halt would likely be lifted in the spring or mid-2027 after a delay of several months. The actual dredging operations in the harbor basin are estimated to take 12 to 14 months from that point onward. A realistic completion of the entire project—and the initial arrival of the much larger LNG tankers—can therefore only be expected sometime in 2028.