By Bekah Hinojosa
U.S. and European activists in Texas, New York City, Ireland, France, and Germany formed a coalition to coordinate a week of actions called #BreakTheFrackingCycle, directed at stopping the Rio Grande LNG export terminal and Rio Bravo Pipeline proposed for South Texas. From April 27 to May 1, the Sierra Club, Save RGV from LNG, Les Amis de la Terre (Friends of the Earth France), Gastivists, UKYCC, Rainforest Action Network, Not Here Not Anywhere, Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, and others, each called attention to a specific phase of the polluting fracked gas cycle of the proposed terminal.
The fracked gas cycle of the proposed Rio Grande LNG export terminal begins with financing by multinational bank Société Générale in France, where fracking is banned, and other business deals by fracked gas company NextDecade in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. It continues with fracked gas extraction in the Eagle Ford Shale, which pollutes communities in South Texas, transmission by the proposed Rio Bravo Pipeline to the proposed Rio Grande LNG export terminal, which would spew pollution into Latinx communities. The final phase is import into Ireland where, like France, fracking is banned.
But this vicious cycle was exposed with a series of international actions. While the Climate Conference opened in Bonn, Germany, on the April 30, activists called international attention to this impactful project with seven actions on both sides of the Atlantic, more than 800 tweets, 381 new pledges to #BreakTheFrackingCycle, and generated 591 comments to send to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) from supporters around the world!
About Rio Grande LNG and Rio Bravo Pipeline
If built, NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG terminal could be the second largest LNG export terminal in North America and located next door to low-income Latinx communities already impacted by border militarization. Rio Grande LNG would also release more than 8 million tons per year of greenhouse gases and destroy more Rio Grande Valley wetlands than any other project in 40 years. The export terminal would also increase fracking in the Permian Basin of Texas already suffering from sinkholes created by the oil and gas industry, and increase fracking in the Eagle Ford Shale of Texas where air pollution has worsened health effects from smog, and so much more.
The proposed Rio Bravo Pipeline, that could supply gas to LNG terminals, would be a double pipeline, and is the largest by capacity requesting a federal permit to build to date. Combined, the pipelines would be seven feet in diameter and transport highly flammable fracked gas 140 miles from a major pipeline hub near Agua Dulce, Texas to the Port of Brownsville, Texas. Texas is already known for having more miles of pipeline than roads. In addition, Texas has notoriously poor pipeline regulations, and pipeline leaks and explosions are not unheard of.
Day One of #BreakTheFrackingCycle: Business
Beginning in The Woodlands, Texas, where corporate cronies of the oil and gas industry use their wealth to expand their power, Sierra Club, t.e.j.a.s., EarthWorks, and West Street Recovery called attention to their role in the fracking cycle. NextDecade, the fracking company behind the proposed Rio Grande LNG and Rio Bravo Pipeline projects, is headquartered here, alongside other notorious companies like Chevron, Phillips Chemical, Halliburton, and ExxonMobil. The Woodlands, a huge master planned community north of Houston, was actually pioneered by George Mitchell, the father of fracking, who was the first to use hydraulic fracturing in Texas shale fields. Future investments in fossil fuels, like fracked gas, makes super storms like Hurricane Harvey more likely, and will lock us into more climate chaos for generations to come.
“Houston has a problem all right, but we are here to break the fracking cycle and it all starts right here in The Woodlands as corporations lock us into decades of more fossil fool extraction,” said Bryan Parras, a Sierra Club Organizer in Houston. “After multiple back-to-back 500 year floods and an unprecedented amount of rain was dropped on Texas during Hurricane Harvey, we must begin to transition into renewable energy sources and protect the remaining landscapes that have not been touched by extractive industries.”
Day Two of #BreakTheFrackingCycle: Extraction
On Saturday April 28, the Texas Sierra Club, Climate Action San Antonio, and other San Antonio-based organizations led a rally outside city hall as part of #BreakTheFrackingCycle. The rally called attention to the public health crisis and contamination of our land and water by fracking extraction operations in the Eagle Ford Shale fields of South Texas.
The construction of the Rio Grande LNG terminal would demand more extraction of gas in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, a practice that pumps toxic chemicals into the ground, contaminating aquifers and exposing millions of people—including the 2.2 million residents of the greater San Antonio area—to ozone (smog) and methane pollution. San Antonio’s ozone season has just gotten underway and already the city has violated federal air standards for ozone at least three times.
San Antonio City Hall
“It's very detrimental to our communities, especially people that are in danger, such as small children, such as our seniors, people who already have issues with their breathing, with their health,” said Claudia Sanchez, Executive Director of Texas Victory Project.
“It's all connected. That's why we're here. Because we want to educate our community … how it's so important they get involved.
Day Three of #BreakTheFrackingCycle: Transmission & Export
Sunday, April 29, members of Save RGV from LNG, local Sierra Club, and other concerned Rio Grande Valley locals hosted a tour of sites, held banners, and made speeches along the Port of Brownsville on Highway 48 where the Rio Bravo Pipeline, which could transmit gas to the Rio Grande LNG export terminal, is proposed to be built.
“Several of our coastal communities have declared their strong opposition to Rio Grande LNG and the two other proposed fracked gas export terminals proposed by passing anti-LNG city resolutions. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Texas regulatory agencies, French bank Société Générale, and the UN, need to hear our international opposition to these projects and reject their permits,” said Maria Galasso, a member of Save RGV from LNG.
Rio Grande LNG is just one of three LNG export terminals seeking permits to build in the community and on lands sacred to the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. Another company called Texas LNG wants to build on known indigenous burial sites of the Carrizo. Members of the Tribe attended the #BreakTheFrackingCycle event and reminded locals of what’s at stake if LNG comes to town.
“The Esto’k Gna stay connected by knowing where our ancestors are buried. We, the Esto’k Gna, stand against the LNG export terminals that would desecrate our burial sites and sacred lands. Stop the ethnic cleansing of the Esto’k Gna,” remarked Juan Mancias, of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas.
Day Four of #BreakTheFrackingCycle: Financing & End Product
On Monday, April 30, activists with Les Amis de la Terre, in Paris, France and Rainforest Action Network in New York City gathered outside the offices of French bank Société Générale, the financial supporter for the Rio Grande LNG project.
Société Générale is currently the first bank worldwide to support fracked gas export projects in North America. In spite of France banning fracking and signing on to the Paris Climate agreement, the bank consciously chooses to make a huge profit from the fracking cycle by supporting Rio Grande LNG. Our international coalition has urged Société Générale to follow the example of another French bank, BNP Paribas, and withdraw from Rio Grande LNG as well as from all LNG projects in North America.
“The French bank Société Générale presents LNG as a transition energy and positions itself as the international leader of this so-called green industry. And indeed, Société Générale is the leading bank worldwide financing liquefied fracked gas export in North America. The bank is today responsible for raising $20 billion for Rio Grande LNG and Rio Bravo Pipeline. In light of the impacts of the project, we call on Société Générale to withdraw from its advisory mandate to NextDecade and commit to not get involved in any of the LNG terminals planned in North America and beyond,” said Lorette Philippot with Les Amis de la Terre (Friends of the Earth France).
Paris, France: Outside Société Générale Bank Office
New York, New York: Grand Central Station
“In the last two years, two major global banks — Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and BNP Paribas — have dropped their leading roles in the proposed LNG export terminal projects in the Rio Grande Valley. Société Générale should follow their lead. And their global peers should recognize that these greenfield projects — which would hurt local communities, abuse Indigenous rights, threaten endangered species, and drive climate change — are unbankable, and steer clear going forward,” said Jason Opeña Disterhoft with Rainforest Action Network.
In Bonn, Germany at the UN Climate Conference, the UK Youth Climate Coalition and (UKYCC) and Gastivists sent the message to the international community that gas is as bad as oil or coal in its impacts to local communities. The end result of fracking projects like Rio Grande LNG going forward is worsened climate change.
“We cannot achieve the Paris Climate agreement without a huge reduction in methane emissions, and yet countries are investing in new fracked gas infrastructure such as the Rio Grande LNG project. Fracked gas is responsible for recent global spikes in methane emissions, which are a dangerous threat to the global climate. As a new round of international climate negotiations has opened on Monday in Bonn, it is crucial to bust the narrative that gas, especially fracked gas, is worth investing in as part of our transition to renewables,” said Naomi Kreitman, of the UK Youth Climate Coalition and Gastivist Collective. “We are here at UN climate negotiations to remind the delegates of their responsibilities and to repeat that expanding the fossil fuel industry is totally inconsistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement.”
Bonn, Germany: Outside the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Day Five of #BreakTheFrackingCycle: Import
In Ireland, where companies Next Decade and Shannon LNG are planning to profit from the fracking boom in the U.S. by importing liquefied fracked gas to Cork and Kerry, locals gathered in Dublin to hear the story of resistance to Rio Grande LNG and the fracked gas industry.
Ireland recently banned fracking because of the devastating impact it holds for both people and wildlife. Our #BreakTheFrackingCycle coalition made it known, that communities that have banned fracking like France and Ireland cannot now profit from the exploitation of other communities at the hands of the fracking industry.
“Ireland banned fracking because of the huge threat it poses to people and to our natural environment. It is unconscionable that Ireland should now be part of the international fracking cycle that profits from the exploitation of communities elsewhere in the world,” said Ciara Barry with Ireland grassroots group Not Here, Not Anywhere.
Dublin, Ireland
Not Here, Not Anywhere, an Irish grassroots environmental group, is in solidarity with communities living in extraction zones in Texas, and is working to inform and mobilize communities in Ireland to oppose the hypocrisy of the international fracking cycle.
International Resistance to Fracking & Rio Grande LNG Continues
Our organizing efforts don’t stop after #BreakTheFrackingCycle. For many of us, breaking this toxic cycle is a life’s work. Next week, the coalition has a follow-up meeting with Société Générale to urge the bank to cease working with company NextDecade, drop support for Rio Grande LNG and the Rio Bravo Pipeline, and divest from any fracking projects from around the world.
To stay up to date with our campaign, sign the pledge to support the communities most affected by this fracked gas cycle.
#BreakTheFrackingCycle Organizations:
Special thanks: Larisa Manescu, Tane Ward, Bryan Parras, Eric Borja, Greg Harman, and Matt Johnson.