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Insurance Giant Chubb Shows 'Promising Leadership' by Dropping Texas LNG Project
"Chubb has the potential to lead the industry and raise the bar for AIG and Liberty Mutual to follow suit," said one campaigner.
Aug 06, 2024
Climate, environmental, and Indigenous rights defenders on Tuesday welcomed news that global insurance giant Chubb dropped out of a highly controversial methane gas project on the Texas Gulf Coast after months of grassroots community pressure.
The Sunrise Project published an insurance certificate obtained via a public information act request showing that Chubb is no longer insuring the Rio Grande liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Brownsville. Houston-based NextDecade—which touts itself as a "sustainable LNG" company—says Phase I of Rio Grande LNG is currently under construction and that the 984-acre site "will be the largest privately funded infrastructure project in Texas."
In addition to exacerbating the climate emergency, Rio Grande LNG threatens land and sites sacred to the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe, which opposes the project.
"When you do the due diligence and understand Indigenous rights, this project is a no-go," Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas Chair Juan Mancias said in a statement. "Investors and major banks have dropped Rio Grande LNG, and now insurers are following suit because the claims of the fossil fuel companies can't be trusted—here, or anywhere in Texas."
According to the Sunrise Project:
This is the latest setback for the not-yet-built project that would harm the coastal landscape of the Rio Grande Valley as one of the last pristine areas of the Texas coastline—a haven for wildlife, fishing, tourism, and recreation and home to Latine and Indigenous communities—into an industrial methane export hub. Years of campaigning was a likely factor in the insurer backing away. Five banks—SMBC, Société Générale, Credit Suisse, and privately, two additional banks—committed to not financing the project after pressure from community leaders.
Community members voiced the impacts that the methane terminal's gas storage tanks, flare stacks, pipelines, and explosion risks pose to the Port of Brownsville, including the city of Brownsville and those known as the "Laguna Madre": Port Isabel, South Padre Island, Laguna Vista, Long Island Village, and Laguna Heights. The cumulative impacts on soils, air and water quality, community health, vegetation, wildlife, threatened and endangered species, tourism, commercial fisheries, and noise would be significant.
"We tell companies the truth about these projects that would be an environmental disaster for our South Texas community. It feels good to be heard," said Bekah Hinojosa of the South Texas Environmental Network. "I expect other insurers like AIG and Sompo to drop next because the LNG facility, the pipeline, the company—they're losers with a dangerous project."
In June, hundreds of Gulf Coast residents traveled to Chubb's New York office to protest the company's insurance of fossil fuel projects including Rio Grande LNG, Texas LNG, Freeport LNG, and Cameron LNG. Six activists were arrested for blocking the main entrance to Chubb's building. The protest—one of several targeting fossil fuel funders and insurers—was part of the Summer of Heat, a civil disobedience campaign aimed at getting Wall Street to stop funding planet-heating oil, gas, and coal projects.
Ethan Nuss of Rainforest Action Network (RAN) asserted that "Chubb is showing some promising leadership by pulling out of Rio Grande LNG."
"Now Chubb must take the next step of becoming a true climate leader and stop insuring all methane," Nuss added. "Now Chubb must take the next step of becoming a true climate leader and stop insuring all methane. Chubb has the potential to lead the industry and raise the bar for AIG and Liberty Mutual to follow suit."
In February, RAN and the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen published a report revealing that at least 35 different insurance companies were underwriting Rio Grande LNG. The report named Chubb and AIG as the world's two most prolific insurers of fossil fuel projects.
"AIG has tripped over itself to insure Rio Grande LNG in the wake of Chubb's exit," Public Citizen insurance campaigner Rick Morris said on Tuesday.
"This move is the latest in a long pattern of insuring and investing in fossil fuels that shows AIG's climate and human rights commitments aren't worth the paper they're written on," he added. "We have one message for AIG: We won't stop fighting until you drop these disastrous projects."
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US Climate Groups Call on Multiple Industries to Fire Their Fossil Fuel Lobbyists
Eleven groups united on Thursday, "calling on lobbyists to pick a side in the climate fight."
Aug 17, 2023
Weeks after a public interest watchdog unveiled the deep ties the fossil fuel industry maintains to numerous industries in the U.S.—with universities, technology firms, and insurance companies employing many of the same lobbyists as the oil and gas sector—nearly a dozen climate justice groups on Thursday issued a call for governments and institutions across the country to "fire" their fossil fuel lobbyists.
F Minus, the research group behind a database released last month showing that more than 1,500 lobbyists have worked both for fossil fuel companies and local governments, schools, and other businesses, was joined by organizations including 350.org, Food & Water Watch, and the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) on Thursday in issuing the demand.
The groups warned that lobbyists employed by companies like Amazon and State Farm; cities including Minneapolis and Park City, Utah; and institutions such as Omaha Public Schools and the University of Washington are "playing both sides of the climate crisis by lobbying on behalf of oil, gas, and coal companies at the same time they are lobbying on behalf of communities and businesses being harmed by the climate crisis."
The lobbyists in question, they said, must choose between taking money from the industry international scientists agree is causing planetary heating, extreme weather, and other effects of the climate emergency, or working on behalf of the nation's communities.
"Hiring a fossil fuel lobbyist is radically at odds with fighting the climate crisis," said James Browning, executive director of F Minus. "It's time to talk to these lobbyists in a language they understand—money—and force them to choose between getting paid to work for the perpetrators of the climate crisis or its victims."
The group revealed last month that universities which have bowed to significant pressure in recent years to divest from fossil fuels are still employing lobbyists that work to promote the pollution-causing industry's interests.
Johns Hopkins University, for example, divested from coal in 2017 but still employs lobbyists for NRG Energy and Holcim Participation, which both have "substantial coal interests."
"Young people will live with the climate crisis the longest and experience some of its worst impacts," said the groups Thursday. "Yet hundreds of colleges and public school districts employ lobbyists whose work on behalf of fossil fuel companies is making the crisis worse. We call on educational institutions to cut ties with these lobbyists."
The groups also noted that a number of cities whose residents are at risk of climate impacts continue to work with fossil fuel lobbyists. Minneapolis' plan to cut city emissions by 80% by 2050 is at odds with the fact that it shares a lobbyist with Enbridge, the Canadian oil company whose pipeline in Wisconsin was ordered to be partially shut down in June due to its risk of causing an environmental disaster on tribal land.
Minneapolis and other cities that employ fossil fuel lobbyists "must end those relationships now—and throw all resources behind lobbying 100% for climate solutions and climate policy progress," said Deborah McNamara, co-executive director of ClimateVoice, which also signed the statement.
"The imperative to act on behalf of climate action and climate policy progress is clear," she added. "At every turn we must be proactive in building new systems, calling out the misalignments in our current systems, and ensuring that all of our activities align with climate leadership and action."
The groups also noted that Amazon has employed fossil fuel lobbyists in 27 states while signing onto an international industry pledge to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, and insurance companies including Liberty Mutual, Berkshire Hathaway, and State Farm work with lobbyists in dozens of states—even as the insurance industry has increasingly withdrawn from operating in states and communities facing extreme weather events.
"Liberty Mutual is sharing lobbyists with the fossil fuel industry and it shares a board member with Exxon," said Mary Lovell, energy finance campaigner at RAN. "They deny coverage for homeowners and businesses while providing coverage for fossil fuel projects in the same areas."
The lobbyists' ties to universities, cities, and companies relied on by millions of Americans enable them to "cloak a radical pro-pollution agenda in respectability," said the groups.
"All of these organizations and their constituents face a harrowing climate future unless we do more to check the power of the fossil fuel industry," they added. "Fire its lobbyists."
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Will New CEO Tim Sweeney Clean Up Liberty Mutual's Climate and Human Rights Record?
Will the insurance giant's top executive continue to unlock the fossil fuel industry's plans to ramp up coal, oil, and gas extraction, or instead adopt policies to accelerate a just energy transition?
Jan 04, 2023
You have likely never heard of him, but Tim Sweeney just became a critical decision maker when it comes to the fate of the fossil fuel industry's global expansion plans. As of January 1, 2023, Sweeney is the new CEO of Boston-based insurance giant Liberty Mutual, which is one of the biggest coal, oil, and gas insurers in the world.
Without the policies that Liberty Mutual and other big insurers provide, new fossil fuel projects like offshore drilling rigs, liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals, and oil and gas pipelines, cannot be constructed. Liberty also invests $2.3 billion of its premiums – that’s the money it collects for car, home, and other insurance policies – into fossil fuel companies.
From day one, new CEO Tim Sweeney must choose: will he continue to unlock the fossil fuel industry’s plans to ramp up coal, oil, and gas extraction, or instead adopt policies to accelerate a just energy transition?
Activists in Boston visited Liberty Mutual’s headquarters this week to congratulate Sweeney on the new role and ask him if he will step up as a climate leader. They handed out flyers to employees headed into work and plastered posters around the area, with our questions: “Which side are you on, Sweeney?” and “What is your plan?” – but have yet to get a response.
Our New Year’s Resolutions for Sweeney
With the first day of 2023 also Sweeney’s first day on the new job, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and partners in the Insure Our Future campaign are calling on him to adopt these New Year's resolutions to ensure a safe and healthy planet for all:
- Immediately stop insuring new and expanded coal, oil, and gas projects.
- Commit to phase out insurance for coal, oil and gas companies in line with 1.5ºC.
- Divest all assets from coal, oil, and gas companies that are not aligned with a 1.5ºC pathway.
- Adopt a policy to ensure the projects and clients you insure respect the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of impacted Indigenous Peoples.
With these resolutions, Liberty Mutual would catapult from being a global laggard on climate to a global leader. Insure Our Future’s sixth annual Scorecard on Insurance, Fossil Fuels, and the Climate Emergency, released in October 2022, found that Liberty Mutual’s fossil fuel insurance policies earned just 0.4 out of 10 points. Of 30 large insurance companies, it ranked near the bottom, even behind US peers like AIG and The Hartford. But with Sweeney now in charge, Liberty has the opportunity to change course and demonstrate what real, credible action looks like.
Sweeney’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Throughout his career, Sweeney has been a champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within Liberty. However, he has yet to extend his DEI analysis to recognize that fossil expansion projects, in addition to climate impacts, disproportionately harm communities of color in the US and globally.
For years, frontline and Indigenous leaders have reached out to Liberty executives directly, asking to discuss the risks of projects Liberty is insuring or at risk of insuring on their lands, cultures, and livelihoods. They have been met with silence from the company.
It remains to be seen if Sweeney will live up to his DEI rhetoric and come to the table and listen to the communities who are being impacted by Liberty’s business decisions. As the leadership transition unfolds, we’ll be watching Liberty’s response on these specific projects (and others) very closely to see where Sweeney lands:
- Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline: Liberty Mutual has come under fire for its insurance coverage of the Trans Mountain tar sands oil pipeline in Canada from First Nations and climate activists, but it has so far refused to cut ties. By contrast, twenty-two insurers have adopted policies limiting coverage for the tar sands oil sector, citing climate and human rights risks. Will Liberty join them?
- Oil and gas drilling in the Arctic: Liberty Mutual has refused to rule out insurance coverage for Arctic oil and gas drilling. The Gwich’in Steering Committee has called on global insurers, like Liberty Mutual, to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the harms of fossil fuel development, but Liberty has so far refused to adopt a policy, or even meet with Gwich’in leaders.
- The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP): If constructed, EACOP would be the longest heated crude oil pipeline in the world, transporting oil 1443 kilometers from Uganda to Tanzania and emitting an estimated 34 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually at peak production. The project has already displaced thousands and threatens the water resources and livelihoods of millions of people. To date, 23 insurers (and counting) have ruled out support for the project due its massive risks – is Liberty Mutual #24?
An Opportunity for Bold Leadership
Sweeney isn’t the only new executive at Liberty Mutual. Alongside him, a team of Liberty Mutual senior officials moved into new roles at the start of this year, and they’ve clearly got their work cut out for them. Liberty is already taking an economic toll from the impacts of climate change, experiencing among the highest catastrophe losses among US insurers this year, due to Hurricane Ian and other climate-fueled disasters.
This should be an issue that hits close to home for Sweeney, who is from Lowell, MA and works out of Liberty Mutual’s Boston headquarters. These flagship offices in Back Bay are at risk of flooding if temperatures warm beyond 3ºC, given how vulnerable large swaths of the city are to sea-level rise. As a company proud of its Boston roots, Liberty Mutual must tackle its contribution to the climate crisis to protect its own offices, its city, and the global climate.
Which side are you on, Tim Sweeney? Will you continue to enable the fossil fuel industry’s expansion agenda through Liberty’s insurance and investment portfolio, or will you step up in 2023?
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