Photo courtesy of Not Here, Not Anywhere
I’m an organizer from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, a community on the frontlines of the US Mexico border militarization and the threat of rising seas of the Gulf Coast caused by climate change. My family is like many others here. We have deep roots in this region, and for generations we have enjoyed our pristine coastline and South Padre Island beach. For years, I’ve been part of a movement to stop three proposed fracked gas export terminals (Rio Grande Liquefied Natural Gas [LNG], Texas LNG, and Annova LNG) that threaten this area with explosive pipelines, tanker ships, and flare stacks. These export terminals would also bulldoze native wildlife habitats, threaten sacred Indigenous historical sites, hurt our local ecotourism economy, release toxic air pollution into our Latinx communities, and contribute to the threat of climate change.
I traveled across Europe in December to confront the banks and decision-makers behind these fracked gas projects alongside our partners who are also working to stop the global buildout of oil and gas. We must take the threat of these fracked gas projects seriously. If we don’t keep coming together in Texas, the people of the Rio Grande Valley could be facing the construction of the fracked gas projects and border wall expansion at the same time.
Fracked gas exports in the Valley would spark a carbon bomb
Every year, the Conference of Parties (COP) holds formal meetings convened by the United Nations to address climate change issues and to establish the legal obligations of developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This year COP25 was held in Madrid, Spain, during the first two weeks of December 2019.
I was part of the Permian Basin Delegation, made up of community leaders, Indigenous people, and people of color supported and organized by environmental groups, such as EarthWorks, Society of Native Nations, and Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services. Our goal was to raise awareness on a global platform about the overdrilling for oil and gas in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico and the impact on our communities and the global environment. If left unchecked, corporate drilling in the Permian Basin could soon surpass oil production in Saudi Arabia, unleashing an explosive amount of greenhouse gas emissions and causing a “carbon bomb” of irreversible climate change effects. More drilling would force communities to live near new toxic fossil fuel infrastructure, such as plastics manufacturing, fracked gas and oil export terminals, and pipelines, all of which will drive the climate crisis if we don’t take action now.
The three fracked gas export terminals in the Rio Grande Valley would have the same annual climate change impact as 61 coal-fired power plants. Source here.
We spoke on panels, talked to reporters, ate Spanish cheeses, and formed relationships with activists from Argentina and Canada who are fighting to stop similar carbon bombs in their own communities, such as tar sands and extraction from Vaca Muerta. The UN negotiations were a disaster this year, and it’s clear that highly resourced countries like the US, (which are the main culprits of climate change) aren’t doing enough to limit their impact. The message from our delegation at COP25 was clear: The three fracked gas export terminals in the Rio Grande Valley, and other proposed fossil fuel infrastructure, would increase gas production in the Permian Basin and lock the US and other countries into more decades of fossil fuel dependence. The fight to stop exports is not only urgent in our own backyard but also is part of the global action necessary to tackle this crisis.
Our Permian Basin delegation joined leaders from Canada and Argentina for a “No Carbon Bombs” banner drop action outside the COP25 conference venue.
Pressuring European banks to drop fracked gas exports
Fossil fuel companies need a lot of capital from big banks to build these massive facilities. If our national and local decision-makers don’t step up to stop them, we can keep them from being built if we go straight to the sources of the money they need to move forward. The Rio Grande LNG and Rio Bravo Pipeline projects are relying on support from French bank Société Générale to launch, and activists from the Valley have been working with French activist group Friends of the Earth France for years to pressure Société Générale to drop the project.
To support the movement, I traveled from Spain to France to join a demonstration inside a Société Générale bank branch located in downtown Paris. Dozens of people filled the inside of the office, bringing their own chairs, microphone and loudspeaker, and banners to create a seating area with a stage where we heard from a lineup of all-women speakers. We educated the staff members about the destructive Rio Grande LNG project that their bank is supporting and the dangers fracked gas operations pose to communities, the climate, and Indigenous peoples. The demonstration inspired people to take action at bank branches in 11 other cities in France that weekend.
Photo by Friends of the Earth France
Following the demonstration, I had a meeting with Société Générale at their skyscraper headquarters to remind officials that it is hypocritical for the bank to support any fracking projects when fracking has been banned in their own country. To date, Société Générale has not made any decision to divest from the Rio Grande LNG project, but other major bank competitors like BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, and Credit Mutuel have recently committed to staying away from the fracked gas projects in the Rio Grande Valley. Our campaign will continue to keep up the pressure on Société Générale to drop the project now or continue to face public scrutiny.
Photo by Friends of the Earth France
Irish communities are resisting US fracked gas imports
Fracked gas export terminals need buyers to import the gas, and Rio Grande LNG currently has a deal with Ireland to import a portion of the gas to a new proposed terminal called Cork LNG. The Irish grassroots group Not Here, Not Anywhere has been fighting Cork LNG and Shannon LNG fracked gas import terminals at their ports. Not Here, Not Anywhere launched an online petition that gathered over 3,000 signatures and circulated a letter signed by more than 50 environmental organizations from Ireland and the US calling on the Port of Cork to drop the deal with Rio Grande LNG.
I traveled to Cork to meet with community members and visit the proposed site of Cork LNG. Joined by two councilors for the City of Cork, I had an opportunity to directly confront the Port of Cork officials and present them with the petition and sign-on letter. I educated the officials about the tremendous opposition to Rio Grande LNG in the Valley and reminded them of their hypocrisy in importing fracked gas from Texas when fracking is banned in their own country. Ireland’s communities don’t want to be locked into more decades of fracked gas energy, so resolutions have been passed by the City of Cork and Cork County calling on the Port to break the deal with Rio Grande LNG and stop Cork LNG.
To remind the Port that opposition will continue beyond our meeting, we joined Irish youth, Extinction Rebellion, and Not Here, Not Anywhere for a banner drop action at the Port of Cork.
Photo by Not Here, Not Anywhere
Stopping fracked gas exports in the Valley in 2020
Rio Grande LNG, Texas LNG, and Annova LNG are very close to receiving all their permits to build their terminals. Rio Grande LNG is awaiting approval from the Army Corps of Engineers. Texas LNG and Annova LNG are waiting for air permits from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and Texas LNG has a pending biological review from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The Sierra Club, community members represented by Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, and the cities in the Rio Grande Valley that would be directly impacted by the projects are doing their part to challenge them by demanding rehearings on the permit decisions by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe and Valley residents are working hard to protect sacred sites, wildlife habitat, and their communities, which would be destroyed by the project’s operations, and to remind their local public officials to stay away from any involvement with the companies or face outrage at their meetings.
Regardless of whether the LNG companies’ permits are granted, we will continue to use creative campaigning to make sure the fracked gas projects are never built. It is now critical to pressure banks like Société Générale and all companies involved with these projects, like the Port of Cork, to pull out and prevent them from ever being built. We can do more to stop these three projects because they will impact many more communities -- along the pipeline paths, wherever else companies plan to export gas, and where drilling would increase.
This European trip to stop the LNG projects was possible thanks to the support from the Sierra Club, Earthworks, Another Gulf Is Possible, Friends of the Earth France, Action Non-Violente COP21, Urgewald, Not Here Not Anywhere, and Cork Greens.