By Barbara Hill
Save RGV From LNG
Again, the Port doesn't let us know about such important business for enough in advance for us to have much of a say. And they don't provide us with enough information for us to have much of a say. Show up if you can, speak up against the lease if you can.
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f the Commissioners' approve the lease, it could open a door to Valley Crossing that we cannot close.
If only the 1,000 foot Broder Crossing Project part of the pipeline out in the Gulf is reviewed by FERC, how are we to stop it. The Texas Commission For Environmental Quality has already approved it with no public comment period required.
If only the 1,000 foot Broder Crossing Project part of the pipeline out in the Gulf is reviewed by FERC, how are we to stop it. The Texas Commission For Environmental Quality has already approved it with no public comment period required.
The Texas Railroad Commission apparently considers any pipeline good to go as soon as the company obtains the required right-of-way easements. Landowners face Imminent Domain action if they refuse the company's offers for easements across their property. Their best bet is to get together now and hire a single lawyer to represent them all.
So our best bet is for the Port to deny the lease. Our next best bet is for the land owners to get together to fight the company's easement requests and Imminent Domain actions.
If this Texas to Mexico pipeline goes through, then we can expect others to follow.
If this Texas to Mexico pipeline goes through, then we can expect others to follow.
For example, Kinder Morgan plans to build a natural gas pipeline from the West Texas Permian Basin fracking fields to the Aqua Dulce Hub northwest of Kingsville (the Gulf Coast Express Pipeline). That's the natural gas supply hub from which Valley Crossing, the Rio Bravo Pipeline, and the yet to be named Annova LNG pipelines plan to get their feed gas. And some folks are dreaming of running such pipelines from the US all the way through Mexico to other South American countries.
In addition, NAmerico Energy Holdings LLC plans to have its own Pecos Trail Pipeline built by 2019 to take fracked gas from the Permian Basin fracking fields to the Corpus Christi area to connect with pipelines that include Valley Crossing. And Three companies have raised $1 billion to build a 730-mile oil pipeline from the heart of West Texas to the Gulf of Mexico in Corpus Christi in what would be the state’s longest pipeline since at least 2008.
So we could have additional fracked gas and oil pipelines headed our way to be shipped overseas from our Port and to be pipelined on down into Mexico.
We weren't supposed to find out about the Valley Crossing Pipeline before it was built and put into operation. We weren't supposed to find out about these other pipelines that could well mean more pipelines headed our way. The folks pushing these projects forward don't know or care who we are, what we think, what we want. They don't want us finding out about their plans, don't want us showing up and speaking out against their projects.
The Port Commissioners' meeting this Wednesday is an opportunity for all who can to show up and speak out -- to demand to know more before projects like the proposed Valley Crossing Pipeline get what they need from our Port to do whatever they want to us and our small part of the world.
See the Port's 04-05-2017 agenda at http://www.portofbrownsville.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Agenda-04-05-17.pdf
To make a public comment, get to the meeting site by 5:15 to sign up to speak. Public comments are limited to three minutes each and are scheduled before the Commissioners vote on the agenda items. During repair of Port Administration Building meetings are at the Port of Brownsville Police Command Center, 2993 N. Indiana Avenue, Suite B Training Room.