Today, news broke that the Port of Cork has cut ties with United States firm NextDecade and dropped the Cork LNG terminal project. The project would have imported up to 3 million tons of LNG per year from NextDecade’s proposed export Rio Grande LNG facility at the Port of Brownsville in South Texas to the Port of Cork in southern Ireland. In 2017, Ireland banned fracking.
NextDecade continues to struggle to line up customers for the Rio Grande LNG project. In November, French trading firm Engie dropped negotiations on a $7 billion, 20-year contract with NextDecade. Rio Grande LNG also faces numerous legal challenges over its threat to the health and safety of local communities and the environment.
Rio Grande LNG has received constant and adamant opposition from local communities in the region, including the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of South Texas. Rio Grande LNG is proposed for construction on land that is sacred to the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of South Texas without their consent.
In response, Sierra Club Gulf Coast campaign representative Rebekah Hinojosa released the following statement:
“The Port of Cork’s abandonment of this project is further recognition of the costs of fracked gas, and makes it even more certain that Rio Grande LNG will never be built. Ireland sent a clear message today that fracked gas would devastate their climate and communities and they won’t allow it in Cork much like we won’t stand for it in Texas.”