Copublished with Rainforest Action Network<\/p>\n<\/div>
(New York City, New York) \u2014 Breaking through an opaque system, Rainforest Action Network obtained information on exactly who is insuring the Calcasieu Pass methane export terminal owned by Venture Global, located in Southwest Louisiana. The company recently had an abysmal IPO (1) brought on by a shaky business model while facing fierce resistance from the fishing and local exploited communities. (2) The information comes at a time of increased public scrutiny on the insurance sector\u2019s profit from fossil fuel projects due to the fires in LA and the polar vortex that swept the south.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div> Insurers are revealed to be Chubb <\/b>subsidiary ACE American Insurance Company, AIG <\/b>subsidiary National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburg, PA, Allianz,<\/b> Swiss Re<\/b>, AXA<\/b>, Tokio Marine <\/b>subsidiary Houston Casualty Company, and Sompo <\/b>subsidiary Endurance Worldwide Insurance Ltd Munich Re<\/b>\u2019s subsidiary Great Lakes Insurance<\/b> and Scor<\/b>\u2019s subsidiary General Security Indemnity Company of Arizona<\/b>; among others. (3) All of these glo<\/a>bal insurers have climate policies<\/a>; (4) for example, Chubb is the first US insurer with a methane policy (5) but the revelation that it is insuring another methane terminal calls its effectiveness into question. Insure Our Future\u2019s recent report (6) states that insurance companies make $11.3 billion on fossil fuel premiums and pay out $10.6 billion in climate disasters.<\/p>\n Locals are holding these insurers accountable as they see underwriting methane companies as an attack on their way of life. Communities living in the wake of the operating methane terminal name the flaring, toxic emissions, and impacts on the local landscape as devastating. Promised jobs are often given to out of state workers who disappear once a facility is built and remaining jobs require expertise not offered to local residents.<\/p>\n Venture Global\u2019s ownership of operating and proposed methane export terminals in Louisiana is catastrophic for the climate. Their facilities are the emissions equivalent of over 160 coal fired power (7) plants. Construction for the methane gas export terminal in Southeast Louisiana, Plaquemines LNG, has led to water shortages (8) in the local community. Venture Global is also seeking permits and financing for two additional new methane gas export terminals, the highly contested CP2 and Delta LNG.<\/p>\n Climate and energy experts (9) say there is no need for fossil fuel expansion for a global energy transition, that a new surge in LNG infrastructure would provide a supply glut (10) that could crash the price of methane gas, increase costs for American families, and that meeting net zero by 2050 necessitates ending the expansion of new fossil fuels. (11)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div> As a resident of southwest Louisiana directly impacted by these LNG facilities, I find it unconscionable that insurers continue to underwrite these massive carbon emitters\u2014yet refuse to provide coverage to the very homeowners and communities most exposed to the climate change fallout from their operations.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div> John Allaire, Retired Oil and Gas Industry Environmental Manager and Landowner Near Venture Global Facility<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div> Environmental justice needs strong, capable leaders from every sector. Chubb is failing to show that leadership, publishing a methane policy while fully knowing that it is on the insurance certificate for Venture Global and Sempra’s methane\/LNG facilities. My home and my family are fighting these companies and anyone associated with them because enough is enough. We are sick of the pollution and the corruption – Chubb, if it has a shred of morality, will drop out of these projects now.<\/p>\n<\/div> Roishetta Sibley Ozane, Founder of the Vessel Project<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>