Courtney Naquin, courtney.naquin@sierraclub.org
*** Sierra Club’s Dirty Fuels legal team and community leaders in the Rio Grande Valley are available to discuss how fracked gas export terminals will impact South Texas ***
Tomorrow at 9am, Sierra Club’s legal team will present oral arguments at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans against the Army Corps of Engineers for reissuing a Clean Water Act section 404 “dredge and fill” permit for the Rio Grande LNG export terminal and the associated Rio Bravo Pipeline proposed for the Port of Brownsville. Sierra Club filed a lawsuit against the Army Corps for reissuing the 404 permit with the Shrimpers and Fishermen of the RGV, and Save RGV in November 2021.
The oral arguments will be available to watch live online. If you are unable to watch the arguments live, a recording of the arguments will be available on the Court’s Youtube page. Please use the following information provided from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to watch the hearing:
What: USACE Section 404 Permit 9 AM Verbal Arguments, docket number 21-60889
When: August 31, 2022 9 AM CT
Where: Online at Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (uscourts.gov). Recording will be available on the Court’s YouTube page four weeks after the hearing.
Note: The link to watch the arguments will only go live when the Verbal Arguments begin and the Court activates the link. (The link also goes dead between scheduled Verbal Arguments.)
Background:
Sierra Club argues that the permit falls short of legal requirements to avoid and compensate for impacts to wetlands, as required under section 404 of the Clean Water Act. In March 2020, these groups sued the Army Corps over the initial 404 permit granted to Rio Grande LNG and Rio Bravo Pipeline. The Army Corps suspended this initial permit after the suit was filed, stating that it would reexamine the permit. Over a year later, the Army Corps reissued the permit, but the new permit still allows hundreds of acres of wetlands to be destroyed.
Rio Grande LNG is owned by NextDecade, who partnered with Canadian pipeline operator Enbridge, the company behind the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota, to build the double Rio Bravo Pipeline to feed the facility. If built, Rio Grande LNG and Rio Bravo pipeline would be the biggest polluter to the low-income and Latinx communities of the Rio Grande Valley region, harm the local shrimping and fishing economy, irreparably damage federal wildlife refuges, threaten numerous endangered species like the ocelot, and destroy pristine lands that are sacred to the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of South Texas.
In March 2020, these groups sued the Army Corps over the initial 404 permit granted to Rio Grande LNG and Rio Bravo Pipeline. The Army Corps suspended this initial permit after the suit was filed, stating that it would reexamine the permit. Over a year later, the Army Corps reissued the permit, but the new permit still allows hundreds of acres of wetlands to be destroyed.
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.