August 26, 2024
Contact: Bekah Hinojosa, bekah@sotxejn.org at 956-975-6634
Rio Grande LNG Ditches Carbon Capture confirming that it’s a scam
After years of opposing the CCS technology, Rio Grande Valley organizations reacted to the LNG company finally ditching the unproven carbon capture sequestration (CCS) proposal.
Brownsville, TX—On Tuesday, August 20, the Rio Grande LNG project withdrew its application for a carbon capture sequestration (CCS) facility in Cameron County with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The FERC had suspended the review of the CCS application for the last year because Rio Grande LNG has been unable to provide detailed plans for the facility to the commission and the public. Rio Grande LNG’s decision to abandon CCS is connected to the community’s recent legal victory related to the project. The court’s decision requires that FERC comprehensively analyze CCS for LNG. Rio Grande LNG relinquished CCS and may be attempting to expedite a re-evaluation of its application to obtain a new permit approval from FERC.
The CCS facility for Rio Grande LNG has been the subject of protests by community organizations, the City of Port Isabel, national environmental organizations, and residents. The CCS facility was criticized for being an experimental technology that would have drawn massive amounts of water, about 2.5 million gallons per month, in the drought-stricken Cameron County region. In 2021, residents protested the CCS project at a Cameron County commission meeting, successfully preventing the commissioners from passing a letter of support for the CCS proposal to the Department of Energy for a grant program. Organizations have also met with or sent a report of related information to banks and investors, such as French Company Engie, to counter the misleading claim that Rio Grande LNG would be “the world’s greenest LNG project.” Engie had initially withdrawn from a partnership with the LNG project because the French government had concerns about the dangerous levels of methane emissions from the Texas’ Permian Basin. However, after launching a greenwashing PR campaign, the Engie company was duped into supporting the Rio Grande LNG project.
In response, Bekah Hinojosa, with the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, issued the following statement:
“ For years, we have been saying that Rio Grande LNG’s CCS proposal was a scam that was invented to greenwash the project and attract investors. CCS for LNG is a greenwashing PR campaign to make the Rio Grande LNG fossil fuel corporation appear to be environmentally friendly. In reality, this CCS technology does not limit the high levels of climate-killing greenhouse gas emissions released from fracking, nor does it mitigate the release of dangerous pollutants from Rio Grande LNG which are known to be cancer-causing and harmful to respiratory health. Our community made it clear through letters, protests, and communication with public officials that we did not want our low-income region to be used as a testing site for a toxic, experimental, untested, and unproven technology like the CCS facility for LNG.”
In response, Juan Mancias, Tribal Chairman of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, issued the following statement:
“Rio Grande LNG could only go along with the lie of carbon capture for so long, and it finally caught up with them. We’ve witnessed the Rio Grande LNG company repeatedly lie to the community, to elected officials in Cameron County, and the FERC by claiming to be ‘green’ and claiming they haven’t destroyed lands and sites that are sacred to the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. The Tribe and the community will keep calling out Rio Grande LNG and Texas LNG’s bluffs till our last breath.”
Background
For nearly a decade, nearby Rio Grande Valley communities and the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe have opposed the Rio Grande LNG, Texas LNG, and Rio Bravo Pipeline projects by filing lawsuits, protesting banks who were financing the projects, or passing anti-LNG resolutions.
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South Texas Environmental Justice Network supports the leadership of frontline BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities. It includes numerous organizations, campaigns, individuals, and Tribal leadership from the South Texas region that challenge the status quo and corporate power to build a future aligned in values that centers on the social and environmental health of local communities living in reciprocal relationships with our shared natural home. www.sotxejn.org
The Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas are the original native people from the Rio Grande Valley region of South Texas. To learn more about the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, visit http://www.carrizocomecrudonation.com.
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