stop dirty projects

fighting the facilities causing environmental crises across Texas

Texas Campaign for the Environment works in coalition with local, state, and national groups to stop harmful fossil fuel projects. Plastic pollution and climate change are both being driven by the shortsighted and wasteful practices of oil and gas companies. The industry is targeting Texas for a massive expansion of fossil fuel export and plastics production infrastructure. TCE is empowering Texans to fight these dirty projects at key stages, including export terminals, petrochemical facilities, and plastics plants—by impacting these projects we can reduce demand for harmful drilling and pipeline projects upstream from these facilities. Instead of these dirty projects, we support the creation of new jobs in sectors like renewable energy — solar and wind power, and energy efficient construction and renovation.

gulf coast fossil fuel infrastructure fight

Industry giants are targeting the Gulf Coast to build numerous oil and gas export terminals and massive new petrochemical facilities that export our energy overseas and turn fuels into plastics. The World Economic Forum predicts plastic production will double in the next 20 years—and by 2050 there will be more plastic by weight than fish in the world’s oceans! As scientists continue to find microscopic particles of plastic everywhere they look, from Arctic snow to the table salt in our homes, it’s clear that plastic pollution is already endangering the food chain and our own health. Doubling that problem would be nothing short of catastrophic.

Meanwhile, export facilities also pose threats to Coastal Bend communities and wildlife in the form of pipelines, tank farms, and dredging. Day-to-day operations of export facilities also emit tons of greenhouse gasses and air pollution, such as benzene, which cause long-term respiratory diseases and cancer as well as increase ozone pollution. These proposed facilities and the industrial infrastructure that supports them also threaten critical wildlife habitats, as well as fishing and eco-tourism economies in beloved destinations such as Corpus Christi, Port Aransas, and Surfside Beach. Estimates based on government models indicate that one oil export terminal alone would generate 568 spills over a 30-year period, including 20 large spills of more than 42,000 gallons each.


To combat this problem, we are working in close collaboration with frontline community allies to oppose new permits for these facilities.

In the Coastal Bend, we’ve also helped form the Coastal Alliance to Protect Our Environment to fight industry tax subsidies for new plastics facilities and export terminals. We’re helping oppose environmentally damaging baywater desalination plants that are needed for the planned industrial build-out.

In Brazoria County we are working with allies and residents in communities such as Surfside Beach to fight crude export facilities such as Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT) and Texas GulfLinks by submitting their comments.

Our activities have continued to mount pressure on polluting companies to clean up their acts and major facilities proposals have been canceled or delayed. We are asking for support across the state to continue these fights – please consider taking action today or making a donation so we can continue this work!

Protecting our Coastal Bend communities

The Coastal Bend region is becoming a hotbed of industrial construction and toxic pollution. More crude oil and fracked gas is exported out of Corpus Christi than any other port in the country. Several massive desalination plants are being proposed to serve Industry and in the process dump millions of gallons of hyper-salty and chemical laden wastewater into the bay system. Industry is targeting the pocketbooks of local residents to increase their profits, while taxpayers would be left with billions of dollars in expenses and a polluted environment.

To combat this problem, we launched our “Please Pete!” Campaign to appeal directly to the head of the Department of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, who oversees permits for four of these highly polluting facilities. Secretary Pete needs to visit and hear about the issues facing communities from Brownsville to Port Arthur. Join us in urging Secretary Pete to stop these fossil fuel permits that would wreck local communities and harm our environment.