BROWNSVILLE - A federal regulator approved plans to move forward with the creation of liquefied natural gas plants Thursday.

These three Houston-based companies have been pushing to pass those plans to export natural gas from the port-of-Brownsville.

The companies are pointing out that Texas has a lot of natural gas right now.

They plan to take that gas, cool it down to minus 260 degrees into liquid, making it dense enough to export it overseas on ships.

This decision comes after several years of environmental and local impact research.

Those companies are now approved to export a combined 37 million tons of natural gas per year.

Annova lng tells us they're working on permits from the US Army Corps of Engineers and a State Air Quality permit.

For more information watch the video above.