Message From the Editor

Want something to talk about with friends and family this weekend? How about the “greenest LNG project in the world.”

Global Investigations Editor Matthew Green collaborated with the environmental news collaborative Floodlight and Texas reporter Gaige Davila to bring us the tale of Rio Grande LNG, a liquified natural gas export facility proposed by Houston-based NextDecade.

The export facility has yet to be built and has been in the works for years. It even seemed for a while that concerns over methane emissions from the Permian Basin had killed the project. But then NextDecade revived it with the promise of making it climate-friendly by using carbon capture and storage.

Activists fighting the project say that the addition of CCS — which is still not viable at scale and is often used to extract more oil — is little more than greenwash for locking in fossil fuels, and akin to “trying to put a Band-Aid on a bullet hole.”

Dive into this important story that we are proud to co-publish with Floodlight, and let us know what you think!

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [email protected]. Want to know what our UK team is up to? Sign up for our UK newsletter.

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. DeSmog has been following fossil fuel industry greenwashing since 2006. Can you donate $10 or $20 right now to support more of this essential work?

Image credit: Gaige Davila

Carbon Capture Project Is ‘Band-Aid’ to Greenwash $10 Billion LNG Plant, Locals Say

— By Matthew Green (7 min. read) —

As the Mexican Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, festivities drew to a close, Dina Nuñez called to order a meeting of women grassroots activists in a modest home in the heart of Port Isabel, Texas. Top of her agenda: how to stop a Houston-based oil and gas company from building a $10 billion project to export liquefied natural gas on a nearby stretch of coast.

For Nuñez and her friends, the fight against the scheme — known as Rio Grande LNG — is about protecting their community from air pollution; preserving shrimping and tourism; and defending habitats for pelicans, endangered ocelots, and aplomado falcons at the project site on unspoiled wetlands between Port Isabel and the larger city of Brownsville.

Canada’s New Oil And Gas Strategy: Green Promises at Home and More Exports Abroad

— By Geoff Dembicki (3 min. read) —

Top Canadian oil and gas companies are moving “aggressively” to cut their greenhouse gas emissions domestically so that they can sell more of their climate-warming products abroad.

That was the message delivered by the sector’s most powerful trade and lobby group at a recent resources industry conference in British Columbia, that achieving “net-zero” at home is crucial for opening up foreign markets.

UK Minister Steve Baker Receives £10k from Chair of Tufton St. Climate Denial Group

— By Christopher Deane and Adam Barnett (3 min. read) —

A minister in Rishi Sunak’s government who has been a fierce opponent of climate action received £10,000 from the chair of the UK’s main climate science denial group last month.

Wycombe MP Steve Baker stepped down as a trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) in September, when then Prime Minister Liz Truss made him Minister of State for Northern Ireland – a post he still holds under Rishi Sunak, Truss’s replacement.

Labour Accepted £12,000 From Major Polluter Drax

— By Phoebe Cooke (4 min. read) —

A large donation to the Labour Party from wood-burning giant Drax has raised concerns among campaigners over the sway of big carbon emitters over Parliament.

The payment from the former coal-fired power station was registered on September 12 last year, and published in December in the Electoral Commission register of political donations.

Louisiana Democratic Party ‘Funneled’ Utility Donations to Climate Candidate Challenger

— By Sara Sneath (5 min. read) —

Louisiana Democratic Party leaders are accused of funneling thousands of dollars from utility companies to the campaign of a fossil fuel–friendly candidate who ran for reelection on the state’s utility regulatory committee.

Campaign finance records filed this week show that the Party received more than $90,000 in donations from utility companies, energy producers, and their executives during the elections for two Louisiana Public Service Commissioners. The same utility companies — Entergy, Cleco, and CenterPoint Energy — also donated directly to incumbent Lambert Boissiere III, whose campaign was largely sponsored by industry groups. Entergy and Cleco did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: 55 Tufton Street

The Westminster building located at 55 Tufton Street is home to a small but influential network of libertarian, pro-Brexit thinktanks and lobby groups, including the UK‘s principal climate science denial group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation. The building is home to several groups that either spread misinformation about climate science or lobby against government action to reduce emissions.
Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database and Koch Network Database.