March to Confront Fossil Fuel Executives at CERAWeek Kicks Off at Houston City Hall

The march is led by members of Gulf South and Indigenous communities who have experienced the harms of fossil fuel pollution and climate disasters firsthand.

Contacts: Rebecca Stoner, [email protected], 917-561-2607
Jenny Espino, [email protected], (361) 400-0314 ext. 4001

HOUSTON, TX — Hundreds of Gulf South community leaders, Indigenous water protectors, and their allies are marching from Houston City Hall to the George R. Brown Convention Center, where the major oil and gas conference CERAWeek begins today. As fossil fuel executives and their allies in government discuss their plans to expand oil and gas, members of Gulf South communities that have been harmed by fossil fuel pollution are rallying to ensure their opposition is seen and heard. Today’s march features local band The Free Radicals, as well as puppets, a piñata, and handpainted banners reading “Give Billionaires the Boot” and “Break the System, Build the Future.” 

“The corporations at CERAWeek have spent decades treating our communities as sacrifice zones, while we face disastrous health consequences. We are here to tell them we will not enable them to continue their pursuit of profits at our expense unchecked,” says Trevor Carroll, a community organizer with Texas Campaign for the Environment. 

The march and rally are part of a series of trainings, demonstrations, and community events organized by Gulf South community leaders called “Break the System, Build the Future,” whose full schedule can be found here. National and international allies have also added their voices in support of the groups’ call for a just transition away from fossil fuels to clean, affordable renewable energy. 

 Press conference speakers include:
-Shiv Srivastava, Policy Director of Houston environmental justice organization Fenceline Watch
-Astra Nasr, a youth organizer with Ignition Front
-Richard Hernandez, Boycott Chevron and Houston Democratic Socialists of America
-James Hiatt, former fossil fuel industry worker and organizer with Better Bayou
-Manning Rollerson, Founder and Director, Freeport Haven Project for Environmental Justice
-Eve, Palestinian Youth Movement

Quotes: 

“The global fossil fuel industry flies into Houston every year to celebrate profits built on premature death, poisoned communities, and collapsing ecosystems. This year, European government officials are at the table, doubling down on their addiction to U.S. fracked gas that is destroying Gulf Coast communities like mine. Every cubic foot of LNG shipped to Europe is paid for in cancer, contaminated water, and shattered lives along the entire supply chain. We are done subsidizing LNG companies’ profits with our lives.” -James Hiatt, For A Better Bayou

“My organizing has always centered Palestinian liberation and helping people to make the connections between settler colonialism, genocide, and environmental catastrophe. This will be my second year attending CERAwWeek, and as long as polluters feel comfortable hosting a conference anywhere close to where I live, I’ll be out fighting to protect our shared home.” -Richard Herrera, Houston Democratic Socialists of America

“Our communities along the Houston Ship Channel in Houston’s Historic East End are filled with life, culture, and history. Our communities are also forced to share a fenceline with the largest petrochemical complex in the entire nation. We live with the reality of explosions, leaks, and fires; chemical disaster is not a question of if it strikes but when. Our homes, schools, parks, and places of worship are surrounded by petrochemical facilities that emit chemicals hazardous to human health that cause multi-generational toxic harm. The asthma, cancer, heart conditions, low birth weights, and reproductive harms are felt not just by us, our elders, children, or grandchildren but reverberate for generations to come. The oil, gas, and petrochemical executives inside the conference are discussing plans for the expansion of facilities and infrastructure in our community which worsen these conditions. They sit at the head of companies whose facilities regularly fail, violate the law, and put our lives at risk. While they discuss how to produce chemicals in our community to maximum profitability, we are fighting for our community, we are fighting for our human rights.”-Shiv Srivastava, Policy Director of Fenceline Watch

“I’m from the East End of Freeport, Texas, where the Freeport LNG project is poisoning people in my community. Everyone in my community could tell a story about the people they know who’ve had cancer, and the children with breathing problems. Freeport LNG took our homes for its expansion project. They promised to bring jobs to my community. They never arrived. I’m at CERAWeek to tell Michael Smith, the CEO of Freeport LNG, that my community is not a sacrifice zone. It’s time for corporations like Freeport LNG and their financiers to not just listen, but follow the lead of communities being impacted by their decisions.” – Manning Rollerson, Freeport Haven Project for Environmental Justice

“We are seeing firsthand how these executives are sacrificing our lives and homes for short term profit, both on a local and international scale. We cannot trust these arsonists to put out the fire they’re setting on us. The solution is not found in conference rooms and backdoor discussions, but in the hands of the people, and that’s why we’re here.“- Astra Nasr, Ignition Front

“At this year’s CERAWeek, oil and gas CEOs are saying the quiet part out loud. The conference will focus on geopolitics, which is really all about how the fossil fuel industry can rake in even greater profits from Trump’s aggression abroad. While oil and gas executives cash in on the skyrocketing price of oil, working people around the world are paying the price in higher energy bills and gas prices. As long as our energy system relies on volatile fossil fuel markets, conflicts will continue to drive instability, price shocks, and corporate profiteering. The real path to energy security, resilience, and peace is a just transition to affordable renewable energy.”-Allie Rosenbluth, U.S. Campaigns Manager, Oil Change International

“JBIC funded Freeport LNG, and it exploded and injured a child in Texas. Now, as the Hormuz crisis proves once more that fossil fuel dependency is a vulnerability, JBIC wants to finance even more of the same. Gulf South communities are paying with their health. Japanese citizens are now paying higher energy bills. It is obviously irrational to double down on the fuel that is failing us.”-Hiroki Osada, Campaigner, Friends of the Earth Japan

“The same fossil fuel executives and European Union leaders yammering about energy security at CERAWeek are locking Europe into overdependence on dirty, expensive U.S. gas. The war in Iran and conflict across the wider region have made one thing clear: relying on imported fossil fuels ties Europe’s economy to repeated energy price crises, geopolitical tensions and instability. Gas prices have already jumped over 60% since the conflict began, hitting European households and industries. Last week’s attacks on gas fields in the Persian Gulf will further prolong the global energy shock, undermining Europe’s affordability and competitiveness. The solution does not lie in deepening energy ties with the United States, but in a rapid shift away from fossil gas imports toward renewable energy.”- Esther Bollendorff, Senior Gas Policy Coordinator, Climate Action Network Europe

Note to the editor:

• Speakers and other spokespeople are available for interviews 
• High resolution images and b-roll available here. Please credit the Texas Campaign for the Environment or the organization / individual’s name on the folder.