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US ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE
NOT IN MY BACK YARD (NIMBY)
Sierra Club: The Rio Grande Valley of TX is one of the last communities on the Gulf without fossil fuel infrastructure. Send a message to keep it that way!
Open PDF:
LNG-2022-infrastructure-Rio-Grande-23539.pdf
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
This message from the Sierra Club is a timely reminder of the NIMBY issue. Since the beginning of the Ukraine War, I have had a concern about the impact of energy on Ukraine, Europe and the broader world including my own location ... the United States. The solution to the energy issue arising from Russia's invasion of Ukraine is for more LNG to be extracted and transported where it is needed from everywhere except Russia.
I have tried to get myself up-to-speed on the global transport network that exists to move hydrocarbon energy around the world and have been very impressed by the scope and scale of the transport network.
And then I get this message from the Sierra Club
And I realise that there is a need to address the NIMBY issue ... do what needs to be done, but NOT IN MY BACK YARD.
The NIMBY issue needs to be addressed in a serious way. I am trying to embed the essential metrics to do this within the TVM framework. The essential mechanism already exists in double entry accounting because of the core structure of debit and credit and the ability for an economic activity to have both a bad side and a good side ... the debit and the credit. In conventional financial accounting this construct is limited to transactions related to and expressed as money value, but they can and should be also about social and environmental impact.
At various times during my life I have been exposed to issues related to the location of property. I almost bought a property that was down-wind from a pulp and paper mill. It would have been awful to have to live with the stench coming from that facility (I think that was 1967 on the Gulf Caast of Texas), As a child I remember my grandfather talking about the economic prosperity of Yorkshire in England using the phrase 'where there's muck there's money'. At the time Yorkshire was very industrial with coal fired energy and serious particulate pollution. If the smokestacks were belching smoke, there were people at work and products being produced. When Yorkshire became clean, the filth and the wealth had moved overseas (... to China). This is a conundrum which has to be addressed, and a starting point for this is a better set of management metrics that embrace, economic, social and environmental issues in a coherent and comprehensive manner.
An emerging idea to address the equity issues in the modern world is not so much about historic reparations that are incredibly difficult to implement in a fair manner, but something less ambitious but easier, faster and likely fairer. The idea is for taxation ... tas rates ... to have a component that relates to place, and the issues ... positive and negative ... that are associated with the place. Broadly stated ... in a place where there are industrial facilities that pollute, people (residents) will get a payment from the tax authorities and those that are creating the pollution will pay the authorities. Broadly speaking the total being collected from polluters should be substantially more than the total being paid out ... but the amounts going to people because of significant pollution should be in the range of what an individual would pay in federal taxes on a wage of $40,000 a year ... that is around $3,000 a year
Peter Burgess
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Take action: Don't let global financiers pollute this Gulf Coast community!
Rebekah Hinojosa, Sierra Club Unsubscribe
9:07 AM (51 minutes ago)
to me
Photo of people at a rally against Rio Grande LNG in Houston, TX with a white banner with white lettering reading Stop Rio Grande LNG on a red backdrop.
Photo by Rebekah Hinojosa | Photo of people at a rally against Rio Grande LNG in Houston, TX
with a white banner reading Stop Rio Grande LNG!
The Rio Grande Valley of TX is one of the last communities on the Gulf without fossil fuel infrastructure. Send a message to keep it that way!
Dear Peter,
If the last couple of years taught us anything, it's that left unchecked, major financial actors -- like banks and the asset managers that partner with them -- will continue to pursue profit and strengthen their bank portfolio even at the expense of frontline communities and our fragile climate.
In Texas, three financial institutions from different corners of the world -- Macquarie Capital (Australia), Société Générale (France), and Credit Suisse (Switzerland) -- have doubled-down on this pursuit. They are serving as financial advisors for the proposed Rio Grande LNG liquified natural gas export project in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas -- one of the few communities remaining on the Gulf Coast without fossil fuel refineries and flare stacks.
Over the last several years, we worked with other local voices from Rio Grande Valley to engage with Macquarie Capital and Société Générale, asking them to uphold their international climate pledges and prioritize the health of the Rio Grande Valley by stepping away from the project. Unfortunately, none of these banks have committed to pulling their support from the LNG project. We must make an overwhelming amount of noise to ensure they know that global financial institutions have an obligation to listen to the communities they threaten to pollute.
Send a message today to the three financial advisors backing the Rio Grande LNG project!
Liquified natural gas (LNG), a liquefied form of fracked gas, is a very difficult substance to manage and would emit an intense amount of pollutants. The two LNG projects in the area, Rio Grande LNG and Texas LNG, would release more greenhouse gas emissions than 40.4 million cars each year.1 The level of exposure to greenhouse gas emissions and particulate matter would worsen current health disparities felt by people living in the Rio Grande Valley, including the increased likelihood of developing liver cancer.2
Additionally, there is already a terrible track record of different LNG projects across the Gulf Coast creating disasters like toxic explosions. Adding these potentially explosive LNG projects to an area already experiencing more severe hurricanes and storms every year thanks to climate change, poses an even larger danger to the surrounding communities. It's clear that these LNG projects are not worth the risk -- and should not continue to be financially backed.
Enough is enough! Join us and call on the three global financial institutions to stop supporting the Rio Grande LNG project and withdraw any services they currently provide.
Community leaders have gone directly to the leadership of global financial institutions but they haven't made the changes we demand and they need to hear from more of us. These financial institutions have something to lose too -- assets at risk of losing value. LNG markets have proven to be unstable -- by continuing to support LNG projects in Texas, these financial institutions are taking on severe risks to their own balance sheets. In fact, in the last year, many banks and asset managers have withdrawn support for LNG projects globally, citing the unpredictable market and strong community opposition. Investors, clients, and community groups are increasingly demanding banks end support for new LNG projects, and those calls are only getting stronger.
These factors are among the many insights featured in the updated report from the Sierra Club and Rainforest Action Network (RAN) in partnership with Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, Friends of the Earth France, and Save RGV. This report highlights the irreversible human and ecosystem impact that the two terminals proposed at the Port of Brownsville would have in the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas, and shows us who the bad actors are behind the terminals.1 Make sure to share this new report in your message and express your concern about their financial backing of LNG exports in Rio Grande Valley.
Take action today! Tell Macquarie Capital, Société Générale, and Credit Suisse: Don't provide any further financial support to Rio Grande LNG!
Thank you for all you do!
Rebekah Hinojosa
Gulf Coast Campaign Representative
Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign
[1] Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Sierra Club, Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, Save RGV, & Les Amis de la Terre France. (2022, October 18). Rio Grande Valley: At Risk from Fracked-Gas Export Terminals.
[2] El-Serag, H. B., Sardell, R., Thrift, A. P., Kanwal, F., & Miller, P. (2020, April 17). Texas has the highest hepatocellular carcinoma incidence rates in the USA - Digestive Diseases and Sciences. SpringerLink.
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