Coastal Bend activists hold protest, caravan against Cheniere Energy in Portland
PORTLAND - As a mother watched her two children run around on the playground at Simpson Park, a protest against Cheniere Energy, an LNG export facility in Gregory that is visible at the park, took place Saturday.
The protest started earlier in the day as local environmental groups, including Texas Campaign for the Environment, met in downtown Corpus Christi to start a caravan.
As people drew up posters and gathered snacks at Coastal Bend's Texas Campaign for the Environment office, Autumn Hensiek-Fain, exports organizer for the nonprofit, said people in the community should be concerned about what Cheniere Energy is doing.
"For the past couple of months, we have been pressuring Cheniere Energy CEO Jack Fusco to make a swap with some of the equipment they're using at their Gregory facility," Hensiek-Fain said. "Due to their benzene and formaldehyde levels coming under the allowed limits set for by the EPA, they are able to operate gas combustion turbines."
Hensiek-Fain said she would like Cheniere Energy to switch to electrical turbines, which she said would be a safer alternative.
"We just think a company like Cheniere, who has tried to cement themselves as the highest in the industry, are not standing up to be a caring neighbor," Hensiek-Fain said. "We want folks in the Coastal Bend that are tired of the flares and tired of having to tell their kids to stop playing outside because they could develop asthma or respiratory illnesses to come together and speak out. To make that swap would be a small step Cheniere can take to cement their status they see themselves as."
In an email to the Caller-Times last week, Cheniere spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder wrote that as the company has expanded local operations, “we have done so with a focus on safety, reliability and efficiency,” and that the turbines don’t “pose a threat to public health and the environment.”
“Regarding our turbines, they comply with federal regulations of formaldehyde and are below the new limits issued by the EPA,” he wrote. “Our turbines comply with state permitting programs for benzene.”
About a dozen vehicles made the trek to the Walmart in Portland to gather more community members before setting up camp at Simpson Park off Broadway Boulevard. Cheniere Energy's facility and flare was visible in the background just three miles away.
With more than 20 people in attendance holding signs voicing opinions against Cheniere Energy, seven people spoke to the crowd and viewers via Instagram Live.
Love Sanchez, co-founder of the intertribal group Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend, was one of the speakers. She said, "we are coming for them" and "we are going to win."
"We are living in a time where we can stand up and say something that is bringing harm to our society," Sanchez said to the crowd. "This is where I'm from and where I'm going to be."
Maggie Peacock, a climate and social justice activist and student at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, also spoke at the event and told the crowd she regularly asks her friends what gives them hope. She said most say young people, but others see the question as controversial.
"People view the word hope in different ways," Peacock said. "Sometimes it means sitting around and hoping things get better. My favorite word is hope. Each and every single one of y'all here today gives me hope. I believe in radical hope and action-based hope. The clean, radical future we imagine in our heads is what keeps us going. That is our hope."
Hensiek-Fain said she hopes the Coastal Bend community realizes there is power in numbers.
"It has been really difficult for us to get in contact with Cheniere's spokespeople," Hensiek-Fain said. "To see (the Caller-Times) report about the event, I saw y'all were able to get in touch with them. That speaks volumes to the fact that there is power in numbers when we come together as a community. We need to push them to the standard to be a good neighbor they claim to be."
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John Oliva covers entertainment and community news in South Texas. Contact him at john.oliva@caller.com or X @johnpoliva.
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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Coastal Bend activists hold protest against Cheniere Energy
