The liquefied natural gas industry sets its sights on decimating the Rio Grande Valley

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry has already made its mark for the worse in Southwest Louisiana and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast. Three projects—two export terminals and a more than 137-mile-long pipeline—now threaten Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. A new report from the Sierra Club and Rainforest Action Network lays bare the cost of constructing and opening Texas LNG’s more than 625-acre facility, Rio Grande LNG’s massive 984-acre terminal, and the Rio Bravo pipeline.

According to the report, the two LNG terminals alone would annually release the equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions of 40.4 million cars. NextDecade, the company behind Rio Grande LNG, insists its facility will be much less environmentally damaging due to its proposed carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. But even the company’s own website only boasts the capture and storage of “more than 5 million metric tonnes of CO₂ per year, equivalent to removing more than one million vehicles from the road annually.”