“How can these politicians honestly claim they’re trying to rebuild our coast when they just gave Venture Global a $184 million tax break to build a gas export terminal?”, says Anne Rolfes

On Thursday, August 10th, Louisiana politicians will gather for the groundbreaking of the nearly $3 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion. The program is expected to restore 21 square miles of Louisiana’s coast in its first fifty years. However, the politicians expected to be present, including Governor John Bel Edwards, also support a buildout of at least 10 gas export terminals along Louisiana’s coast, which will reverse the sediment diversion program’s progress and turn coastal Louisiana into an industrial wasteland. This includes Plaquemines LNG, which lies just a few miles from the site of the groundbreaking, and, according to recent reports, could devastate the surrounding area if hit by a major hurricane.

In response to the groundbreaking, the Executive Director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, issued the following statement:

“Louisiana loses about 24 football fields a day due to coastal erosion. It’s an existential threat to our way of life so great that a recent poll found that 84% of Louisianans had a favorable opinion of ‘lawmakers who support strong action to protect and restore Louisiana’s coastal areas and wetlands.’ While I applaud our lawmakers for their concern about coastal erosion, their actions lack a cohesive plan for protecting our coast and the fishing families who rely on it.

Just a few miles away from the groundbreaking, Venture Global is constructing one of its four planned gas export terminals in Louisiana, Plaquemines LNG. This terminal will not only decimate Plaquemines Parish’s fragile coast, it will also ruin the local fishing industry, and put the local community in grave danger. All of the politicians present are helping the gas export terminal industry find shortcuts to build massive terminals that will destroy our coast.

What’s the point of spending taxpayer money in one area of our coast but facilitating destruction in another? How can these politicians honestly claim they’re trying to rebuild our coast when they just gave Venture Global a $184 million tax break to build a gas export terminal?

If these politicians want to get serious about protecting Louisiana’s coastal communities, including our world renowned seafood industry, then they need to stop trying to turn our coast into an industrial wasteland and start investing in the fishers, shrimpers, and oystermen who’ve sustained our people and culture for generations.”

Venture Global, which operates Plaquemines LNG, was recently hit with a compliance order from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality that detailed over 100 violations at its Calcasieu Pass gas export terminal. A report from the Louisiana Bucket Brigade detailed over 2,000 air permit violations at the same facility over a one year period. Venture Global has said that Plaquemines LNG will be ‘technologically identical’ to the Calcasieu Pass facility.