At the age of 16, Erica Fernandez took on a major multinational corporation in her city of Oxnard, California. As Earth Island Institute said, "When Fernandez learned that a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility was proposed for the coast of Oxnard and Malibu that would include a 36-inch pipeline routed through low-income neighborhoods, she was outraged. She worked in concert with the Sierra Club and the Latino No on LNG group to mobilize the youth and Latino voices in protests and public meetings. She organized weekly protests at the BHP Billiton offices in Oxnard, met regularly with community members, marched through neighborhoods that would be most impacted, and brought more than 250 high school students to a critical rally. Her passionate testimony at the California State Lands Commission meeting was widely quoted in news articles, and helped convince the Commission to vote to deny the project. Next, she helped convince the California Coastal Commission to vote 12–0 against the project, and worked on a campaign to the governor asking him to veto the project. Fernandez’s dogged determination played a crucial role in helping her community to resist a multinational corporation. The company listened, and four years later, the pipeline idea was dead.
Keep a watch on Erica, there is certainly more to come.
