Local Coalition Hosts People’s Hearing to Stop Permitting of Polluting LNG Projects in South Texas

Save RGV from LNG, Sierra Club and the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas join together in protest of proposed LNG terminals and pipeline

PORT ISABEL, TX - Yesterday, over 50 Rio Grande Valley residents hosted a demonstration of opposition to several LNG projects proposed for South Texas at a comment session held by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), one of the agencies responsible for the permitting of the projects.

The purpose of the comment session was to record verbal comments on the recently released draft environmental impact statements (EIS) of the proposed Rio Grande LNG terminal, Texas LNG terminal, and the Rio Bravo Pipeline. The draft EIS is a document that describes the environmental, social, and safety impacts of the LNG projects. After submitting comments to stenographers inside the Port Isabel Event and Cultural Center, community activists hosted a people’s hearing and protest outside to uplift concerns about the LNG projects in a public space.

If built, Rio Grande LNG would be the second largest LNG export terminal in the country and the single largest source of hazardous air pollution in the area. The Rio Bravo Pipeline would carry the most fracked gas in the county seeking to be built. The cumulative environmental impacts of the three terminals would damage the relatively pristine and unindustrialized South Padre Island with fracked gas infrastructure like storage tanks, massive tanker ships, and smoking flare stacks. The construction of the Texas LNG terminal specifically would desecrate sacred indigenous burial and village site called “Garcia Pasture” of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, which is a federally recognized historic site by the National Park Service and considered one of the premier pre-Columbian archaeological sites in Cameron County.

The construction of the LNG terminals would also increase the demand for fracking across Texas, especially in the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale regions. Rural communities and major metropolitan areas like San Antonio alike suffer from the disastrous effects of heavy fracking like toxic air pollution and increased sinkholes.

Thursday’s hearing was the final of three demonstrations held in South Texas just this week, with two FERC comment sessions in the cities of Kingsville and Raymondville to collect comments on the Rio Bravo Pipeline and the Rio Grande LNG terminal on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“LNG in the Valley is not a done deal. We’re here to let regulators know that we don’t want these LNG export terminals threatening our health, our community, and bulldozing important indigenous cultural sites,” said Rebekah Hinojosa, Rio Grande Valley Sierra Club Organizer.

“The Garcia Pasture site is more than a federally registered historic site. It is a traditional cultural lifeway of the tribal identity of the Esto’k Gna. The construction of Texas LNG would require digging up our ancestors, and regulators need to be aware of the irreparable damage they would be approving,” said Juan Mancias, Chairman of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas.

"The LNG companies still have a long way to go before the permit decision and our communities are fighting this process every step of the way. Especially on the heels of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report, it's hard to imagine that investors will sign on to business plans that will require 30 or more years of fracking in West Texas,” said Maria Galasso, a member of Save RGV from LNG.

None of the three LNG terminals, Rio Grande LNG, Texas LNG, and Annova LNG, nor the Rio Bravo Pipeline, have received approval to build. The deadline for public comments for Rio Grande LNG’s draft environmental impact statement is December 3, while Texas LNG’s deadline is December 17. Annova LNG’s draft environmental impact statement is expected to be released in December.

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