Groups Organizing to Stop the Rio Grande LNG Export Terminal

This coming week, from February 26 to March 3, has been declared a global week of action to end fossil fuels by Insure Our Future, a group that pressures the insurance industry to insure new oil, gas, and coal projects and other fossil fuel infrastructure. As Insure Our Future states on its website, “Except for a few laggards, most insurers have stopped insuring new coal projects under pressure from the Insure Our Future campaign. However, contradicting their own climate commitments, most insurers continue to underwrite the expansion of the oil and gas industry.”

At the moment, pressure is focused on the planned Rio Grande LNG (liquid “natural” gas, or LNG) export terminal in Brownsville, Texas, which is up for insurance renewal in March. Despite President Biden’s recent pause on approvals for new LNG pipelines, there are a number of them that already have approval and are in various stages of development. Each would be an investment in decades of continued drilling, transporting, and burning of methane. Methane carries risks of explosions, and leaks all through the process offset most or even all of the benefits of replacing coal plants with LNG.

Daily Kos Green and partners have started a petition targeting insurers of the project. “This project, and the proposed Texas LNG and Rio Bravo Pipeline, is a clear case of environmental racism with enormous, devastating impacts on community health, Indigenous rights, endangered species, and our shared climate,” they write.

This Friday, March 1, as part of the global week of action, 350 Conejo / San Fernando Valley are organizing a demonstration at the Farmers Insurance building in Westlake Village to tell Farmers and their parent company Zurich to stop insuring LNG. You can learn more and register to attend the demonstration here.