Late last year, we asked several times to sign petitions, send comments, and take action aimed at getting the Biden Administration to stop the fossil fuel exports, especially LNG, that are wrecking our climate progress. Thanks to your support we’ve already delivered more than 200,000 comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the US Department of Energy (DOE) and convinced FERC to delay, but not yet deny, their decision on CP2.
Now we’ve got another chance to stop a massive LNG terminal in the Gulf of Mexico, and this time we’re going after the money – not the Biden Administration. The Rio Grande LNG another LNG export terminal proposed in Brownsville Texas, near the US-Mexico border. The Rio Grande has already received a lot of the approvals from the Biden administration that we’re fighting with CP2, but our friends at Rainforest Action network dug into the investment info and found that their insurance certificate is up for renewal in March.
That gives us just a few weeks to convince the big insurers — Chubb, Liberty Mutual, and Sompo — to stop insuring Rio Grande, and all LNG export terminals like it. Click here to send a letter now and to help us reach our goal of 150,000 letters sent this week!
Rio Grande LNG isn’t the only export terminal we’re fighting, it’s not even the only LNG project we’re trying to divest, defund and uninsure; But it is a clear case of environmental racism.
The Carrizo-Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, who are the original Indigenous people of the region, and a tribe that we’ve worked with for years have specifically and vociferously NOT given their Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) for the project – and in fact have been leading the opposition to Rio Grande for years. And, especially when combined with nearly two dozen other nearby oil and gas export projects, Rio Grande LNG will obviously exacerbate environmental racism in the Gulf by perpetuating the displacement, pollution, sickness, and economic dispossession of affected communities.
And all this damage for more methane exports – which research has already shown are worse for the climate than coal thanks to the fact that Methane gas is 80 times more climate-warming than carbon dioxide. This not to mention the fact that methane is highly volatile, leading to the risk of explosions like we saw in Freeport, Texas in 2022.
Despite promising to value climate and community impacts in their policies, and not to work against the expressed interest of indigenous communities and frontline Environmental Justice groups around the world, big Insurers like Chubb, Liberty Mutual, and Sompo have continued to back Rio Grande LNG, and other climate killing projects around theGulf.
These insurers have the power to stop this project by refusing to insure it, and it is imperative that they listen to indigenous and impacted communities Right. Freaking. Now. They can show they’re doing that by publicly refusing to support Rio Grande LNG immediately, and then winding down policies that insure fossil fuel exports and expansion globally over the next few years. But time is running out before Rio Grande’s insurance renewal in March 2024,.