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Home › Dodgy Deals ›
Dodgy Deal
Texas LNG TerminalUnited States

Project – On record

This profile is no longer actively maintained, with the information now possibly out of date
Contact:

Alison Kirsch, Climate and Energy Program and Research Coordinator, Rainforest Action Network

Last update: 2020-02-25 00:00:00
Coastal wetlands threatened by the proposed Texas LNG terminal. Photo: Google Maps

Project – On record

This profile is no longer actively maintained, with the information now possibly out of date
Contact:

Alison Kirsch, Climate and Energy Program and Research Coordinator, Rainforest Action Network

Last update: 2020-02-25 00:00:00
Why this profile?

Why this profile?

The proposed Texas LNG terminal would be located close to coastal wetlands and threaten the Bahia Grande area of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife refuge, where wetland restoration is still ongoing.

What must happen

In general LNG export terminals are capital-intensive, financially risky and environmentally destructive. Financial institutions involved in these projects share responsibility for the impacts of these facilities. These impacts span people and ecosystems across the continent: communities around the terminal site, communities at the point of extraction and communities along the pipeline routes.

By financing practices that are incompatible with a climate-stable future, the financial institutions involved threaten the global agreement to address climate change. Therefore, banks involved should withdraw their support for this project.

About
Sectors LNG Terminal
Location
Status
Planning
Design
Agreement
Construction
Operation
Closure
Decommission
Website http://www.txlng.com/
This project has been identified as an Equator Project

In the port of Brownsville, Texas USA, Texas LNG is planning to build a liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminal, expected to cost USD 1.3 billion. Together with two other terminals, Rio Grande LNG and Annova LNG, these terminals would be used to liquify and export 5.1 billion cubic feet of gas every day. These terminals are said to be build on undeveloped land, transforming the coastal landscape of the Rio Grande Valley into an industrial export hub for LNG.

Impacts

Social and human rights impacts

The public health impacts of climate change in U.S. Gulf Coast states—Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida—may be especially severe and further exacerbated by a range of threats facing the coastline areas, including severe erosion, subsidence, and—given the amount of energy production infrastructure—the ever-present potential for large-scale industrial accidents. The Gulf Coast population is expected to reach over 74 million by 2030 with a growing number of people living along the coastlines. Populations in the region that are already vulnerable because of economic or other disparities may face additional risks to health and well-being as a consequence of a changing climate, creating new levels of concern for political and public health leaders.

Communities that would feel the negative impacts of the LNG terminals are often low-income people of colour. The Texas LNG terminal will be located between the Laguna Madre communities and next to Brownsville, a rural community that is 93 percent Hispanic or Latino. More than 35 percent of the Rio Grande Vallley's residents live in poverty, the highest rate of any metropolitan area in the United States. Already this region struggles with major health issues. These projects would add thousands of tons of pollutants into the air. Across the United States nearly 1.78 million Latinos already live in areas that face a cancer risk above the EPA's level of concern from toxins emitted by oil and gas facilities. Industrial ozone smog burdens Latino communities with 153,000 childhood asthma attacks and 112,000 lost school days each year.

If built, this LNG terminal could significantly impact the local fishing, shrimping and ecotourism industries. Nearby South Padre Island could have its beauty and its economy compromised by the release of effluent water, and the brown haze that would come with the thousands of tons of air pollution.

In the Rio Grande Valley, nature tourism alone leads to 6,600 jobs. In contrast, an LNG terminal creates mostly temporary construction jobs and only a few hundred permanent ones.

Texas LNG submitted a 92-page document located deep in the FERC website called “Resource Report 4: Cultural Resources.” The report outlines the company’s efforts to contact numerous Texas tribes to gather information about the Garcia Pasture site. Based on the report, however, Texas LNG failed to contact the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, the tribal group that originates from the South Texas Rio Grande Delta. The Texas LNG export terminal, like the other two planned terminals, poses a serious threat to Indigenous historical sites. The company has not adressed these issues. In 2016 the National Park Service concluded in an offical statement that the project site "contains one of the premier prehistoric archaeological sites in Cameron County", which "has known burials, [...] and contact period artifacts" (Sierra Club November 2016).

For more information on the gendered and racial impacts of the fossil fuel industry in North America, including this LNG terminal, see WECAN's 2021 report "Gendered and Racial Impacts of the Fossil Fuel Industry in North America and Complicit Financial Institutions". 


Environmental and climate impacts

The terminal is proposed right on the edge of what the US Fish and Wildlife Service calls 'one of the largest and most succesful coastal wetland restoration projects in the US': the Bahia Grande unit of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife refuge, where wetland restoration is still ongoing. The 21,700 acre refuge is a safe haven for a range of species and native vegetation, as well as a crucial storm barrier. Endangered ocelots and Aplomado falcons roam this area. As of August 2015 only 53 ocelots were left in Texas, all in this area of the state. Construction, bright lights, tall structures, air pollution and wastewater will fundamentally alter the ecosystem of the area.

With these three terminals (Rio Grande LNG, Texas LNG and Annova LNG) exporting at full capacity, burning just one year's worth of the gas exported from Brownsville would create greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the annual emissions of 30 coal-fired power plants. Accounting for extracting, piping, liquefying and shipping the gas nearly doubles the carbon intensity of energy produced from RGV's exported LNG. LNG is the most carbon-intensive form of natural gas.

Financiers

The project requires an investment of USD 1.3 billion. Third Point and Texas LNG share ownership of Texas LNG Brownsville, the project development company. Third Point, a US investment fund, provided development capital for the project.

After initially being appointed financial advisor for the project in 2015, in October 2017 BNP Paribas announced a new policy commitment that excludes unconventional fossil fuels from its portfolio. This means that it will not finance Texas LNG.

Companies

Project sponsor

Texas LNG

United States
Website
No companies

Other companies

KBR

United States
Website
Samsung Engineering and KBR will provide Texas LNG with pre-Final investment decision detailed engineering and post-Final investment decision engineering, procurement & construction

Samsung

South Korea
Website
Samsung Engineering and KBR will provide Texas LNG with pre-Final investment decision detailed engineering and post-Final investment decision engineering, procurement & construction
No companies
News
BankTrack
Partners
Blog
External
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Texas Court Dismisses Port Isabel case against Rio Grande LNG, Texas LNG leases

2022-12-02 | Natural Gas Intel
Blog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Rio Grande Valley: at risk from fracked gas terminals

Big banks step away
2022-10-18 | Rainforest Action Network
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

As peak hurricane season looms, banks bolster cozy relationship with fossil fuel industry

2022-07-12 | Louisiana, USA | Louisiana Illuminator
Blog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

New report details the gendered and racial impacts of the fossil fuel industry in North America and complicit financial institutions

2021-04-14 | San Francisco Bay Area, California | WECAN
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Cancelled Annova LNG Export Project Signals Potential Headwinds for U.S. FIDs

The sponsors of the planned Annova liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project in South Texas have called quits on the development, citing changes in the global market.
2021-03-23 | Natural Gas Intelligence
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Plans for Annova LNG Fracked Gas Export Terminal Ditched

2021-03-22 | Sierra Club
Blog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Banking on Climate Change – Fossil Fuel Finance Report Card 2020

New report reveals global banks funneled USD 2.7 trillion into fossil fuels Since Paris Climate Agreement, with financing on the rise each year 
2020-03-18 | Nijmegen | BankTrack, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, Rainforest Action Network, Reclaim Finance, Sierra Club
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

FERC denies rehearing of Texas LNG Brownsville and Annova LNG Brownsville Project Authorizations

2020-02-21 | Lexology.com
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Opponents of Texas Port LNG terminals inch closer to lawsuit

2020-01-27 | Ttnews.com
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Climate activists disrupt gas industry conference

2019-11-06 | Friends of the Earth Europe
Blog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Rio Grande Valley: Big banks urged not to back high risk fracked-gas export terminals

2019-08-14 | BankTrack
Blog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

New Report: Banks and Investors Should Avoid Supporting Rio Grande Valley LNG Projects

Three proposed fracked gas export terminals would pose reputational risks for financial institutions
2019-07-10 | Rainforest Action Network
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Texas LNG casts doubt over rival U.S. projects due to China risk

2018-10-31 | Reuters
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Texas LNG receives draft EIS from FERC for export facility

2018-10-30 | Hydrocarbons-technology.com
Blog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

BNP Paribas takes the global lead in excluding unconventional fossil fuels from portfolio

Other banks urged to follow suit, starting with the Equator banks
2017-10-12 | Nijmegen, Paris | BankTrack, Les Amis de la Terre
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Texas LNG advances proposed Brownsville liquefaction, terminal

2017-03-13 | Oil&Gas Journal
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Samsung Engineering, KBR chosen to build Texas LNG plant

2017-03-02 | Lngworldnews.com
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Environmentalists urge French bank not to finance Texas fracking project

2017-03-02 | The Guardian
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Des ONG reprochent à BNP Paribas de financer l’exportation du gaz de schiste américain

2017-03-01 | Le Monde
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Commentary: RGV native lands threatened by LNGs

2017-02-20 | The Monitor
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Rio Grande Valley Native Lands Under Threat by LNG Companies

2016-11-21 | Sierra Club
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Second wave of Texas LNG export projects could take off in the next decade

2016-06-27 | The Houston Chronicle
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Island council mulls LNG

2015-09-02 | The Brownsville Herald
Resources
Documents
Images
Links
2023-03-08 00:00:00

Letter to the NZBA about LNG export terminals in Texas

NGO document
2023-03-08 00:00:00 | Friends of the Earth France, Rainforest Action Network, Reclaim Finance, Sierra Club
2021-04-14 00:00:00

Gendered and Racial Impacts of the Fossil Fuel Industry in North America and Complicit Financial Institutions

A Call to Action for the Health of our Communities and Nature in the Climate Crisis
NGO document
2021-04-14 00:00:00 | WECAN
2019-03-15 00:00:00

Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS)

Other document
2019-03-15 00:00:00 | Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
2020-02-01 00:00:00

Texas LNG Project Brief - February 2020

Company document
2020-02-01 00:00:00 | Texas LNG
2018-10-01 00:00:00

Semi-annual report 2018

Annual report
2018-10-01 00:00:00 | Texas LNG
2018-11-19 00:00:00

Texas LNG Project Brief - November 2018

Company document
2018-11-19 00:00:00 | Texas LNG
2018-10-26 00:00:00

Texas LNG Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement Volume I

Other document
2018-10-26 00:00:00 | Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
2016-10-01 00:00:00

Rio Grande Valley: At Risk from Fracked-Gas Export Terminals

NGO document
2016-10-01 00:00:00 | Rainforest Action Network
2017-03-01 00:00:00

BNP Paribas vs. Communities and Climate: Supporting the Texas LNG Fracked-Gas Terminal Threatens the Rio Grande Valley

NGO document
2017-03-01 00:00:00 | Rainforest Action Network, Les Amis de la Terre France, Save RGV from LNG
2017-03-31 00:00:00

TexasLNG project brief March 2017

Company document
2017-03-31 00:00:00 | TexasLNG
2016-03-31 00:00:00

Texas LNG Resource report 4 - Cultural Resources

Company document
2016-03-31 00:00:00 | Texas LNG
2017-05-23 00:00:00

BNP Paribas Fossil Bank Briefing 2017

French version
BankTrack publication
2017-05-23 00:00:00 | BankTrack, Les Amis de la Terre
2016-11-06 00:00:00

A bridge to nowhere

The climate, human rights & financial risks of liquified natural gas export
NGO document
2016-11-06 00:00:00 | Rainforest Action Network
2016-11-14 00:00:00

Texas LNG project brief July 2016

Company document
2016-11-14 00:00:00 | Texas LNG

RGV LNG export terminals sites

2016-11-08

Lower Rio Grande Valley Sierra Club

Campaign Facebook page of Sierra Club

Updates

2019

2019-11-21 00:00:00 | FERC authorizes Texas LNG project

The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has authorized Texas LNG Brownsville’s proposed 2 train, LNG export facility located in the Port of Brownsville, Texas (Texas LNG press release).

2018

2018-10-26 00:00:00 | FERC has issued a draft EIS of the Texas LNG project

On October 26 2018 the Federal Environmental Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Draft EIS of the Texas LNG project. The document can be accessed here.

2017

2017-10-12 00:00:00 | BNP Paribas will not finance Texas LNG

BNP Paribas takes the global lead in excluding unconventional fossil fuels from its portfolio. The so called unconventional fossil fuels are tar sands, shale gas, oil and has exploration projects in the Artic region, as well as all related infrastructure for transport and export. This means that BNP Paribas, although financial advisor of Texas LNG, will not finance the project. See BNP Paribas' press release and BankTrack's statement for more information.

2017-03-03 00:00:00 | Texas LNG advances proposed Brownsville liquefaction export terminal

Texas LNG Brownsville LLC, a subsidiary of Houston-based Texas LNG LLC, has engaged a consortium of Samsung Engineering Co. Ltd. and KBR Inc. to deliver both preliminary final investment decision (FID) detailed engineering and post-FID engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services for the first 2 million-tonnes/year phase of a proposed 4 million-tpy LNG export project the company plans to build on the Brownsville Ship Channel in Cameron County, Texas (source Oil&Gas Journal).

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