[Press release] Texas Community Leaders Cap Week of Confronting Japanese Financiers with Actions at SMBC, MUFG, and Mizuho Headquarters

Texas Community Leaders Cap Week of Confronting Japanese Financiers with Actions at SMBC, MUFG, and Mizuho Headquarters

TOKYO, Japan — Community leaders from Freeport, Texas, held rallies today outside the headquarters of three of Japan’s largest megabanks — SMBC, MUFG, and Mizuho — closing out a week of confronting Japanese financing of the Freeport LNG terminal. 

Manning Rollerson, Melanie Oldham, and Gwendolyn Jones traveled from Texas to Tokyo to submit grievance complaints outlining the human rights and environmental impacts of Freeport LNG to both Japanese public institutions JBIC and NEXI, private megabanks MUFG, Mizuho, and SMBC, and the Japanese power company JERA on Monday, May 18. 

In 2022, an explosion at Freeport LNG sent a fireball 450 feet into the sky, injured nearby residents, and released 120,000 cubic feet of LNG. The plant was shut down for eight months and has struggled with repeated operational failures.

The week’s actions come as Freeport LNG is grappling with operational issues recently. This forced Freeport LNG to cancel multiple scheduled cargo shipments, further raising questions about the project’s viability as a sound investment.

QUOTES: 

Manning Rollerson, Founder and Director, Freeport Haven Project: “We traveled to Tokyo and filed our complaints against Japanese financial institutions that are financing our suffering. Before flying back home, we want to send a message to the financiers of Freeport LNG: this is just the beginning and we plan to pursue every avenue to hold them accountable.” 

Melanie Oldham, Founder and Executive Director, Better Brazoria: Clean Air and Water: “Our communities back at home suffer from decisions made by people who sit in boardrooms and only care about profits. We demand that these Japanese institutions take our complaint seriously and reconsider their investments that have harmed our families for many years.”

Gwendolyn Jones, Founder, Climate Conversation Brazoria County: “Freeport LNG has already blown up once and poisoned our air for years. Our community is not a sacrifice zone. We are done dealing with the harm while financiers rake in the profits. That ends now.” 

Allie Rosenbluth, U.S Campaign Manager, Oil Change International: “Freeport LNG is a stark example of just how unreliable and risky LNG investments are. Japanese banks must look at the harms to communities, the environment, the climate, in addition to the economic instability caused by LNG investments . The question now is whether banks will respond or continue to look the other way.”

Hiroki Osada, Campaigner, Friends of the Earth Japan: “Japanese financial institutions have grievance mechanisms for a reason and now they have been formally invoked by the very people their investments are harming. How JBIC, NEXI, MUFG, Mizuho, SMBC, and JERA respond will say everything about whether commitments to their environmental and social guidelines mean anything at all.” 

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NOTES TO EDITOR: 

• Photos from bank actions are available here. 
• Press release of the complaint filing available here in English and Japanese.  
• Watch the recording of the press conference with the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan here. 
• For more information on the complaint filed, refer to this background document.