This week, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) held a public meeting in Brownsville covering the air quality permit for the proposed Jupiter MLP’s crude oil terminal and processing facility. Brownsville residents spoke in opposition of the project as the TCEQ has acknowledged the significant emissions of harmful pollutants and carcinogens such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, organic compounds, particulate matter and sulfur dioxide that crude upgrader facility, a type of refinery, inevitably produces. The Jupiter MLP project includes a 670 mile pipeline that would pump up to 1 million barrels per day of crude oil to a new storage tank, to then process in a facility between Brownsville and Port Isabel and later export. As Brownsville and Port Isabel are heavily populated cities that house many public schools, hospitals, churches and also encompasses the active marshlands and lively beaches many residents are speaking out against the project seeking to protect their land, health and future.
“It is sad to see the port of Brownsville becoming a fossil fuel port,” said Bill Berg, Professor Emeritus at the University of Texas RGV, and an active member of the Save RGV from LNG Coalition. “There is an amazing willful blindness on the part of TCEQ and the port not to see fossil fuels as leading to the destruction of the Texas coast, and to damage to the beach at South Padre Island, one of the last beaches in Texas undamaged by the petrochemical industry.”
“As natives, we see it’s all connected, and each part affects everything. The Jupiter oil terminal, the three LNG export terminals, and the Valley Crossing Pipeline will affect Brownsville and the entire coastline.,” said Juan Mancias from the Carrizo-Comecrudo Tribe. “Each of these proposed projects is toxic, and statewide there are hundreds more emitting poison into our air. TCEQ needs to look at the cumulative impacts and stop permitting these projects across Texas. ”
“The people the Lower Rio Grande Valley deserve sustainable solutions, not vague answers and empty assurances from the TCEQ and Jupiter MLP,” said Lori Glover, Texas Pipelines Organizer with Earthworks. “There’s no side stepping the fact that the emissions from crude oil upgraders, pipelines, storage tanks, and miles of LNG processing plants will foul the air and water, increase respiratory diseases, and exacerbate the climate crisis. In the end these projects will be a blight with costs far greater than the short term benefits.”
“Jupiter oil terminal and pipeline is one of the many fossil fuel burning companies targeting our coast and we firmly stand against the proposed project at the Port of Brownsville,” said Rebekah Hinojosa, Brownsville Sierra Club Organizer. “our communities do not want to become a sacrifice zone so the oil and gas industry can make a profit, make a mess and leave our communities and our coasts more vulnerable and exposed to harmful pollution that directly infect our air and water.
For more information and to join our movement against the proposed oil and gas projects in the Rio Grande Valley please click here: https://www.sierraclub.org/texas/lower-rio-grande-valley/liquefied-natural-gas-lng