November 18, 2019
This Wednesday (November 20) three impacted communities in the Rio Grande Valley: City of Port Isabel, Laguna Heights, and Long Island Village by the proposed Texas LNG fracked gas project will attend a contested case hearing to challenge the company’s air permit request from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Environmental organizations, the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe, and residents from the Rio Grande Valley area will attend the hearing to watch and show support for the communities challenging the air permit. They will also hold a press conference and rally during the hearing.
When: Wednesday, November 20 Where: Texas LNG Contested Case Hearing is from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM inside the William P. Clements Bldg (300 W 15th S., Austin, TX 78701). The press conference is during the hearing from 11:00 - 12:30 PM, Outside Willam P. Clements State Office Bldg.
Who: The protest is organized by the Sierra Club, Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, Extinction Rebellion ATX, and Public Citizen Texas and will be attended by Rio Grande Valley residents and indigenous leaders.
Speakers: Flora Gunderson, resident of Long Island Village Josette Cruz, anti-LNG activist and resident of Brownsville, TX Juan Mancias, Chairman of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas Rebekah Hinojosa, Sierra Club Organizer
After the contested case hearing, the public is invited to join community members from the Rio Grande Valley and the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas for a dinner and panel discussion to learn more and take action to stop the fracked gas expansion near South Padre Island, defend sacred indigenous sites, and protect communities from environmental racism.
Where: First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave, Austin, Texas, 78756
When: Wednesday, November 20, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Residents of the Rio Grande Valley have been fighting against a trio of proposed LNG facilities: Texas LNG, Annova LNG, and Rio Grande LNG for years. The construction of the Texas LNG project and the other two LNG terminals would bulldoze pristine lands near South Padre Island to build flammable pipelines, storage tanks, and smoking flare stacks or ground flares that would pollute nearby communities and irreparably destroy the habitat of the endangered ocelot. Texas LNG would destroy a federally recognized indigenous historical site called “Garcia Pasture” with burial grounds and village remains that are sacred to the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. The Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe was not consulted about these projects. Due to local efforts, opposition to LNG in the RGV has reached three continents and convinced the major international bank BNP Paribas to drop its support for the Texas LNG project.