Gulf Coast Residents Live in ‘Ground Zero’ of U.S. Fossil Fuel Industry’s Sacrifice Zone  

Interview with Eddie Lejuine, a 62-year-old fisherman from Cameron, Louisiana, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

gulf coast fossil fuel sacrifice zone

Under the Trump administration’s push for U.S. “energy dominance” — albeit one that excludes renewable sources like wind and solar — there’s a building frenzy along the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coast where construction of six liquified natural gas or LNG export terminals are now underway or planned. That’s in addition to six terminals currently operating.

The U.S. export of so much methane gas is increasing the price of the commodity for heating, cooling and electricity across the country and burdening small communities in Louisiana and Texas with higher levels of toxic pollution. The production of LNG is also releasing huge amounts of climate-heating gases into the atmosphere. Methane is 100 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide in the short term, making its reduction urgent.

The company is planning to build an export terminal near Cameron, Louisiana. The project was paused in October by a state judge due to concerns about climate and environmental justice impacts, but her decision was later overridden by Louisiana Republican Gov. Jeff Landry. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Eddie Lejuine, a fisherman from Cameron, who talks about all the fossil fuel projects now under development in his community and what fisherfolk and their supporters are doing to fight back.

EDDIE LEJUINE: They killed the permit, the judge killed that. My understanding is it went back to state and they rescheduled it to start back. The Gov. Landry has overruled our judge and allowing it to continue to go forth. They’re also putting in a carbon capture pipeline about six miles from my house and that’s going to put a bunch of contaminants, 2000-foot into the ground below our aquifer and pump it with all the state up north and stuff with all their contaminants. It’s going to go below our water system, right? Not far from my house. The people do not want that. Somehow they pushed it in this area and it’s going to be done. It’s being done as we speak. There’s leakage possible anywheres, but when they put it through this area into the ground, there’s been thousands of oil wells have been drilled throughout the 100 years now, so we’re like a pin cushion in this area.
The people are scared that when they push through our water aquifer and get below it, they’re going to be pumping with such force. It’s that stuff they’re going to be putting is really bad contaminants and it’s like a gel form, and when they put that through there, we feel like it’s going to find one of the old pipelines and either it’s going to make our water acidly, kill our aquifer. Or if it comes to the surface, you can’t smell it, you smother to death. So we’re facing that also with everything else that’s going on with the Venture Global pumping up our marshes and stuff.
MELINDA TUHUS: So the Venture Global, that’s the CP 2 project and that’s going forward also. Right? The LNG export terminal.
EDDIE LEJUINE: And they’re also building one to the north of the plant that we have about two miles from my house. They’re building another one about a mile and a half north of it along the same waterway.

MELINDA TUHUS: It seems to me that you’re in a sacrifice zone. Would you agree?

EDDIE LEJUINE: Oh, most definitely. See, we have about three miles away, we have the Strategic Petroleum (Reserve), the salt dome. So we have that. Now we’re going to have the pipeline that’s coming through with all these contaminants of carbon capture that the state has pushed on us and with all these plants. They’re building the fourth one, expanding the third one. We have one at Sabine, and then the one that the judge killed would be like the sixth one that they’re putting in this little area and as we speak the mud that they pumped out into our estuary that they’re still denying ever doing it.

MELINDA TUHUS: So do you have anybody on your side? The fishermen have gotten together, but do you have anybody who’s on your side trying to fight these projects?

EDDIE LAJUINE: The police jury board? Well, we have one police juryman that’s very concerned. The rest of them, they’re for the industry. Some of the words that were said was sometime they have to be sacrifices to make overall better for the parish.

MELINDA TUHUS: Are there groups like local groups or Sierra Club? Is there any group like that that’s in your corner?

EDDIE LAJUINE: Yes. We have the Sierra Club. When I was up there in Washington, that’s who was helping us there. There’s the Bucket Brigade in the area and then there’s FISH (Fishermen Involved in Sustaining our Heritage). That’s the little committee that we have going on. And Habitat Recovery. I’ve also, amongst a lot of the fishermen, have retained a lawyer now.

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