On Sept. 26, the Environmental Awareness Club staged a climate strike on the Edinburg campus against UTRGV’s affiliation with LNG and to bring awareness to current climate issues.
Houston-based NextDecade Corp. is developing Rio Grande LNG, a planned multibillion-dollar natural gas liquefaction and export project, according to its website. The pipeline will take natural gas from the Eagle Ford Shale, Permian Basin, and other resources. The liquid natural gas will be transported through pipes to the Port of Brownsville. From there, the liquefied natural gas is exported and sold in foreign markets.
On Aug. 31, 2016, UTRGV President Guy Bailey and NextDecade founder, chairman and CEO Kathleen Eisbrenner signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a strategic partnership to foster STEM-based education programs, research and job training opportunities for UTRGV students.
The MOU ended on Aug. 31 of this year.
Around 50 people showed up to the strike, which started at the Bronc statue, went through the middle of campus and ended at the Ballroom. Posters were handed out with phrases like “UTRGV not LNG” and “NO PIPELINE,” while chants were shouted during the march.
“We are here because we are taking a stand against big corporations that have polluted our lands and are continuing to pollute lands and harm our people,” said Marisol Cervantes, president of the EAC and a philosophy senior. Cervantes listed the possible impacts of having this project in the Rio Grande Valley, which are chemical pollution, loss of habitats, unprecedented evacuations, oil spills and having a negative effect on eco-tourism.
“We would like to ask [President Bailey] if he can separate away from the memorandum of understanding between the LNG companies,” she said. “The partnership that he made with them is not representative of the people here at UTRGV, and many of us do not want it.”
Jacqueline Hernandez, a senior sociology and Mexican American Studies major who attended the strike, compared the LNG project to a similar one in Houston.
“They create such a smell; it creates a toxic environment, so I don’t know why the campus would want to support something against the environment and something against our livelihood,” Hernandez said.
The Rider reached out to the company behind Rio Grande LNG for comment, but it did not return any calls.
“I think those types of protests from students are part of an institution of higher learning,” Patrick Gonzales, associate vice president for Marketing and Communications and university spokesman told The Rider. “We have thousands of students that are passionate about a lot of topics, and as an institution of higher learning, we recognize the freedom of expression and speech that everybody on our campus community has. We’re very understanding and welcoming of the opportunity for healthy and constructive debate.”
Another attendee in the strike was Jessica Gil, a senior majoring in sociology, and she said having strikes like this one is essential.
“It’s important to bring awareness to these issues because the environment affects everybody, it’s not just a select group of people,” Gil said. “It affects everyone. What we’re trying to do is fight for everyone.”
On Oct.1, the Cameron County Commissioners’ Court voted 3-2 to approve an abatement agreement with Annova LNG, another liquefied natural gas project. Under the agreement, Annova LNG receives a 10-year tax abatement and makes direct payments to the county of $5.5 million for community projects, in addition to “$500,000 annually in a payment in lieu of taxes,” according to its website.
“We care about our future generations,” Cervantes said. “We care about our future as well. And, by making more fossil fuel industries and by promoting it, we are going further away from the route that we need to get to, which is a sustainable future where we will have clean air, clean water and growth of our lands, not extinction.”
The Cameron County Commissioners’ Court approved a tax abatement for Rio Grande LNG back on 10-03-2017. Now adding insult to injury, three of the Commissioners gave Annova LNG a tax abatement as well.
One of the bigger problems will be what LNG operations like these will put into our air that will be bad for our health. People want the jobs so folks don’t have to leave their families to work elsewhere. Unfortunately, some of the stuff these companies will put in the air will increase our rates of serious asthma and bronchitis so that those folks will need to leave for other places for health reasons.
In voting for the tax abatement for Annova on 10-01-2019, Cameron County Commissioner Sofia Benavidez said she thought the jobs the company would provide here would help keep families together here. What we need are local jobs that don’t endanger our health — especially the health of our young folks and old folks.
The companies say what they put in the air 1) are all “below permitted levels” and 2) won’t have any impact on our health or environment beyond their fence lines.
Unfortunately, scientists have found that the kind of “particulates” the companies will be putting into our air can shorten the lives of folks living within 150 miles of the source of the particulates (“Fine-scale damage estimates of particulate matter air pollution reveal opportunities for location-specific mitigation of emissions,” Andrew Goodkind et al, 04-30-2019, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,https://www.pnas.org/content/116/18/8775).
Particulates are tiny drops of fluid or bits of stuff that can be so small we can’t see them or smell them. When we breathe them, they can go from our lungs into our blood to spread through our whole bodies.
The LNG operations, if built, will be putting such stuff into our air around the clock, every day, for 30 to 50 years.
The abatement was passed with a three to two vote.
The three commissioners who voted for the abatement said Annova told them that it’s LNG operation here would not damage our environment. But all 3 LNG companies are having to make promises to minimize the damage they do to our environment, to fix the damage, or to make up for the damage one way or another.
Of course the companies claim they’re minimizing, fixing, and making up for the damage because they care about us and our environment. They may even claim that they’ll make it better that it was before. But our weather and climate is changing in ways that make it harder to fix the kinds of damage they’ll do here.
Commissioner Joey Lopez justified his vote for the abatement by flashing a financial chart on the screen showing how it will grow our economy and tax base etc. I have to ask how much the numbers on the chart are based on the financial impact statement Ernst & Young did for Annova back in February 2015? Did Annova give him an actual copy of that document, or just tell him what it supposedly says. I also have to ask if the financial benefit analysis included the job losses and health problems the project will bring our way were included in the Ernst & Young financial impact statement.
If Annova fails to live up to its end of the abatement agreement in terms of jobs and our economy? Does more damage to our local health and environment than it can correct? Kills more jobs than it can create? Causes even more kids to leave the Valley? Then what?
At the 10-02-2019 South Padre Island City Council meeting, Council Member Kerry Schwartz strongly criticized the abatement deal. Here’s Pamela Cody’s 10-04-2019 Port Isabel – South Padre Press story says about Schwartz’s remarks about the abatement agreement (“SPI council discusses Annova LNG, skate park, golf cart steering committee,” https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2019/10/04/spi-council-discusses-annova-lng-skate-park-golf-cart-steering-committee/):
QUOTE:
“According to the Houston Chronicle, the estimated abatement is worth 375 million dollars,” Schwartz said. “Total abatements, so far, is about 750 million dollars, or about 70 million per year. In exchange, the agreement with Annova was they must hire 100 workers, and 35 have to be local. That’s 2 million for each local worker hired. Think about that, let that sink in.”
Schwartz went on, saying “It is in essence a free ride for these companies that want to come in and take advantage of what we have to offer, and it will affect our tourism. But the fact that we would give them a free ride – we have businesses on the Island that employ more people than this and they pay their fair share of taxes, they don’t get abatements. We’re talking three quarters of a billion dollars this county desperately needs. It’s one of the poorest counties in the country.”
END OF QUOTE
Commissioner Lopez made the motion to approve the abatement. Lets hear his response these concerns.
For those of you up for some complicated reading, check out Annova’s 09-20-2019 request for prompt FERC approval of the project at:
http://elibrary.FERC.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20190923-5028.
And for those of up for really complicated reading, check out some reasons I don’t think FERC should approve the Annova LNG project yet at: http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20190930-5027
Full disclosure: I’ve been an active member of SAVE RGV from LNG since May 2014 (www.facebook.com/saveRGVfromLNG/).