Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to be greeted by a sign asking her to ‘Defend Fishermen, Stop Gas Exports’, personally invited to Cameron and asked to deny Venture Global’s permit for its CP2 gas export terminal.
Wednesday, November 15, 2023 CAMERON, LA – Ahead of U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s visit to Louisiana this Thursday, Travis Darder, an indigenous fisherman and founder of Fishermen Invested in Saving our Heritage (FISH), released a video inviting her to visit Cameron, LA and witness the devastation that gas export terminals have wrought on the local community and seafood industry firsthand. In the video, Dardar also asks her to deny Venture Global’s permit for its CP2 gas export terminal.
The Energy Department grants permits to allow companies like Venture Global to export gas to non-free trade agreement countries based on whether doing so is in the ‘public interest’. Denying this permit would effectively stop Venture Global from building this latest gas export terminal, protecting the community from pollution, preserving Cameron’s generations-old seafood industry, and preventing another carbon ‘mega bomb’.
Venture Global already operates a gas export terminal in Cameron, Calcasieu Pass, which earned the company $18.2 billion in profits last year at great expense to the local community. In 2022, the company reported over 2,000 permit deviations at Calcasieu Pass. Detailing 138 incidents where Venture Global polluted more than allowed, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality even issued a compliance order against the company.
Cameron fishermen, shrimpers, residents and allies have repeatedly expressed their concerns over Venture Global’s operational problems and negative impacts on the local community, making clear that an additional gas export terminal would not be in the public’s interest.
Secretary Granholm visits Louisiana on Thursday to attend a Community Lighthouse event in LaPlace. As she attends the event, Secretary Granholm will be greeted by signs asking her to ‘Defend Fishermen, Stop Gas Exports’. During the event, she will also be personally invited to visit Cameron, LA and asked to deny Venture Global’s permit for its CP2 terminal and all other pending permits for gas export terminals.
Background information:
The port of Cameron once produced the most seafood in the U.S.. However, plummeting prices, worsening storms and a spike in imported seafood have already made it difficult for the latest generation of local fishermen and shrimpers to continue working. Gas export terminals now threaten to become the final nail in the coffin for a trade that has sustained the local economy for generations and has been a cultural backbone for all of Louisiana.
Fishermen, shrimpers and residents of Cameron Parish have been mobilizing to halt the gas export terminal onslaught, including organizing a flotilla of shrimp boats outside of the LNG Summit of the Americas last year.
The terminals not only destroy once abundant fishing grounds, the massive tankers also prevent shrimping and fishing boats from accessing the Calcasieu River. In addition to threatening the seafood industry, gas export terminals also make surrounding areas more vulnerable to flooding during major hurricanes. The terminals eat away at natural barriers such as cheniere plains and sandbars, and their massive walls only push the storm surge into nearby communities.
In addition to the three operational gas export terminals, and three others under construction, the oil and gas industry is trying to build or expand 10 more gas export terminals in Louisiana, with a larger onslaught along the Gulf Coast.
About Louisiana Bucket Brigade
The Louisiana Bucket Brigade collaborates with communities on the fenceline of polluting industry in Louisiana. We engage in grassroots action to hasten the transition from fossil fuels.
Visit the labucketbrigade.org website for more information.
