Source: Vanessa Ramos
On July 24th, the Save RGV from LNG Coalition and the Sierra Club attended the Port of Brownsville Commissioner’s meeting to make public comments and held a protest outside against the proposed Rio Grande LNG and the Rio Bravo pipeline projects. Simultaneously, allies with Extinction Rebellion NSW in Sydney, Australia protested Australian financial services company Macquarie’s support of Rio Grande LNG outside Macquarie's annual general shareholders meeting.
The Brownsville protest amplified Save RGV from LNG’s demand for a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for Rio Grande LNG and the Rio Bravo pipeline. The Commissioners have leased land to the LNG companies and are actively supporting the projects.
A recent disclosure revealed that NextDecade, the company developing the projects, told their shareholders that they plan to export more gas than they told the FERC in their permit application. Rio Grande LNG and the other two LNG terminals, Texas LNG and Annova LNG, are proposed for the Port of Brownsville.
“NextDecade has given inaccurate information about Rio Grande LNG’s potential impact on the Rio Grande Valley, and we demand an additional Environmental Impact Statement from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission of the proposed LNG project,” said Josette Cruz with Save RGV from LNG Coalition. “We will continue to pressure any shareholder or company involved to quit investing in these LNG projects that would pollute our communities and damage the environment.”
Valley residents are demanding the Port of Brownsville Commissioners and public officials speak on their behalf to FERC, just as the Town of Laguna Vista did earlier this month. The coalition also presented a new report on the LNG project’s impacts to Valley communities to the Port Commissioners.The report details that the three LNG export terminals would do the same damage to the climate as approximately 61 coal-fired power plants.
Source: Vanessa Ramos
Exporting large quantities of gas through South Texas would put communities of the Rio Grande Valley at risk of hazardous air pollution and explosions. If built, Rio Grande LNG would be the second-largest fracked gas export terminal in North America, releasing more than eight million tons of greenhouse gas pollution per year. The export terminal would subject low-income Latinx RGV communities to dangerous air pollution. It would also destroy pristine lands, and increase the demand for dangerous fracking across Texas. The Rio Bravo pipeline, which would transport 4.5 billion cubic feet per day of fracked gas to the terminal, would threaten families along the route with the risk of leaks and explosions.
"LNG would have detrimental consequences to our environment, communities, and health,” said Rebekah Hinojosa, the Brownsville Organizer for the Sierra Club. “Investors need to respect the voices of the people in the Rio Grande Valley, and LNG developers must abandon their projects in South Texas.”
Rio Grande LNG proposed for the Port of Brownsville and near Port Isabel potentially disrupts sacred lands and will pollute the Bahia Grande wetlands and has received major opposition from the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe in South Texas.
“Rio Grande LNG has never consulted with the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas about the pristine lands that are sacred to us that this project would destroy,” said Juan Mancias, chairman of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe. “This project is a threat to our rights as Indigenous people and the land we seek to protect from exploitation.”
Source: Vanessa Ramos
Demonstrators in Australia entered the Macquarie shareholder meeting to play a video clip of Mancias, demanding that investors pull out of the project. Extinction Rebellion NSW occupied space, held banners outside, and distributed fliers to shareholders asking them to pressure Macquarie to drop the project.
“Climate change is an unprecedented global emergency. Climate experts have demonstrated there’s no room to expand any fossil fuel projects if we want to have a chance of preventing a complete climate catastrophe. Despite this, Macquarie is providing financial services to the Rio Grande LNG export terminal and associated Rio Bravo pipeline, in South Texas,” said David Kohn with Extinction Rebellion NSW. “This fracked-gas export terminal is a carbon bomb we cannot afford. Extinction Rebellion is calling on Macquarie Group to drop this climate destructive project.”
A live-streamed video of public comments to the Port Commissioners and several photos of the protest can be found at the Save RGV from LNG Facebook page.