The proposed Rio Grande LNG export facility near Port Isabel, Texas, would pollute their community and local environment, hurt the local shrimping and tourism industries, and exacerbate climate change, community advocates say. “This is a poor community, yes. We’re not saying we don’t need jobs,” said Dina Nuñez, of Vecinos para el Bienestar de la Comunidad Costera (VBCC). “But we don’t need work that affects the environment, and ultimately, the health of the community.”

Local activists like Bekah Hinojosa, a Brownsville artist, community organizer, and Gulf Coast campaign representative for the Sierra Club, also decry the company’s claims it would capture the facility’s carbon pollution as little more than “trying to put a Band-Aid on a bullet hole.”  The plans to capture the facility’s carbon pollution would only address 6-7% of the facility’s overall climate pollution, which would be as much as 163 million tons per year (about as much as 44 coal plants, or more than 35 million cars). “CCS was always greenwash for oil and gas production,” Australia Institute carbon market expert Polly Hemming said. “Carbon credits for CCS for oil and gas production is greenwash on top of the greenwash.” (The Guardian)