Environmental protesters target company’s profits, new oil pipeline
By Amanda Drane STAFF WRITER
John Beard, CEO of the Port Arthur Community Action Network, speaks while Jordan Duncan, left, and Trevor Carroll, who are with the Texas Campaign for the Environment, hold a card and a cake outside Energy Transfer’s office in Houston on Tuesday.
The cake was part of a sarcastic “Happy Anniversary” for the Texas freeze. Protest organizers also focused on plans for a pipeline through Sabine Lake.
An environmental group protesting a new oil pipeline in East Texas sought to turn heads in downtown Houston on Tuesday.
The group, Save Sabine Lake, threw a tongue-in-cheek freeze anniversary party targeting the offices of Energy Transfer, the Dallas pipeline company co-founded by Kelcy Warren.
Protesters carried a large decorative cake but failed in an attempt to present workers with a card congratulating the company on its profits during last year’s freeze. Energy Transfer is scheduled to report its 2021 fourth-quarter and full-year earnings Wednesday. Through the first nine months, the company reported earnings of $4.6 billion, including a whopping $3.3 billion in the first quarter of 2021, which included the deadly winter storm that proved to be a boon for many pipeline firms.
Protest organizers also focused on the company’s plans for the Blue Marlin offshore oil export platform that would include a 37-mile pipeline from Nederland through Sabine Lake and to the Gulf Coast. They argue that the project could threaten the fisheries and bird habitats in the region.
Energy Transfer officials did not respond to a request for comment.
John Beard, a Port Arthur resident and CEO of the Port Arthur Community Action Network, said the pipeline is inching quietly toward reality.
It doesn’t take much leaked oil to contaminate a body of water, said Beard, adding that Sabine Lake tourism is too important to the local economy to risk spoiling.
“All of that would be affected, and it would be affected for generations,” he said. “That’s not a chance that we’re willing to take.” amanda.drane@chron.com