By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy said on Tuesday it is not able to complete reviews of two liquefied natural gas projects in Louisiana until an independent regulatory body finishes its environmental assessments.

The DOE said it has to wait for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, to finish its work before it can review applications for exports to countries with which the U.S. does not have free trade agreements. The projects are Venture Global LNG's CP2 20 million ton per annum facility and Commonwealth LNG's planned 9.5 Mtpa facility. Both are located on the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana.

"DOE cannot complete its review of these two applications - CP2 and Commonwealth - until after FERC’s completion of the environmental reviews and issuance of final merits orders," the department said in on its website.

It said the decision was "consistent with precedent" during the administration of President Joe Biden and the previous two administrations.

FERC last month pulled Venture Global's authorization to construct CP2, requiring an additional environmental review of air quality impact. FERC has not disclosed exactly how long that review will take. A FERC representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CP2 has been at the center of a fight with environmentalists seeking to limit future LNG projects on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The facility had won FERC construction approval in June.

The additional review follows a decision on Aug. 6 from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that quashed FERC's approval of NextDecade's plant at the Port of Brownsville, Texas, and ordered FERC to reconsider the project ramifications with a new environmental statement and public comment period.

Venture Global LNG last week slammed FERC's call for an additional environmental review as unnecessary, adding that it will be ready to begin construction once the project gets a final go-ahead.

FERC also put on hold its approval for the construction of Commonwealth LNG's facility in Cameron. Commonwealth has said it was confident in its project and will be providing all requested input for the supplemental environmental impact statement.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner)

((timothy.gardner@thomsonreuters.com))