Courtney Naquin, courtney.naquin@sierraclub.org
Brownsville, TX - Today, the fossil fuel company NextDecade announced its deal to supply 1 million tons of fracked gas a year for 20 years from its proposed Rio Grande LNG export project and the associated Rio Bravo Pipeline in Brownsville, Texas to Exxon Mobil. Polluting companies like NextDecade and Exxon Mobil promote fracked gas as a “clean fossil fuel” and minimize its environmental justice and climate impacts.
Despite this deal, Rio Grande LNG still faces several hurdles before it can be constructed. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is currently reevaluating Rio Grande LNG’s potential climate emissions and impacts to environmental justice communities after initially failing to conduct an adequate analysis. The project is also the focus of an active lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers for issuing the facility a water pollution permit that threatens the Rio Grande Valley’s wetlands and local fishing and shrimping economy. Meanwhile, the French bank Société Générale faces robust public pressure to drop its support for the project due to the severe impacts fracked gas has on the climate.
In fact, fracked gas exports from the Gulf will likely increase the demand for fracking, a major source of methane pollution, a greenhouse gas that is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming our climate. Exxon Mobil has significant fracking operations in the Permian Basin, one of the largest sources of methane emissions in the country. Reporting from recent years has revealed that Exxon Mobil has known about the connection between fossil fuels and climate change for decades, and has poured millions of dollars into climate change denial and disinformation.
If built, Rio Grande LNG and the associated Rio Bravo pipeline would pollute low-income and Latinx communities of the Rio Grande Valley region, harm the local shrimping and fishing industry, irreparably damage the Laguna Atascosa wildlife refuge, threaten numerous endangered species like the ocelot, and destroy pristine lands sacred to the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. Rio Grande LNG never consulted with the Tribe, who opposes the project.
Emma Guevara, Brownsville Organizer with Sierra Club, said:
“Rio Grande LNG and the Rio Bravo Pipeline is a major threat not only to the environment surrounding it, but to our communities as well. We will not allow Exxon Mobil and NextDecade to get away with greenwashing and misleading the public into believing that LNG is good for our community or environment. LNG is fracked gas, a dirty and polluting fossil fuel, and our community should not be sacrificed for fracked gas industry development. Just the construction alone of Rio Grande LNG will destroy over a thousand acres of our coastline. Rio Grande LNG would be a dangerous project and the biggest polluter in our region, and must be stopped before it causes irreparable harm to the Rio Grande Valley.”
Juan Mancias, Tribal Chairman of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, said:
“Neither NextDecade, Rio Grande LNG, nor the Rio Bravo Pipeline have ever consulted with the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, the original people of these sacred lands. Constructing these LNG projects would be a modern-day example of colonization as we could be yet again separated from our lands. They do not have our consent for this project that would be destructive and polluting. As the world heats up, we need to abandon fossil fuels and new gas infrastructure projects. What kind of future will our great grandchildren have if the whole world is on fire simply because rich colonizers wanted to be richer."
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.