Resident, Rancho Viejo, TX
Open Letter to All Public Officials
Representing the Rio Grande Valley
Subject: Oppose Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Terminals in the RGV
In the past few months, three Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) companies have presented their plans to build export terminals at the Port of Brownsville bordering Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge and the Bahia Grande.
They have offered jobs and economic benefits in exchange for destroying our priceless natural resources that sustain jobs, wildlife habitats and corridors for endangered animal species, ecotourism, commercial and recreational fishing, safe communities and the very air we breathe.
I have been in an occupation that promotes jobs, careers and opportunities for students, but I draw the line on welcoming companies that have shown a total disregard and disrespect for the people of The Rio Grande Valley. It is difficult to understand why these companies would even consider decimating environmentally sensitive areas that have placed us on the map as a vacation, sporting, bird watching, wildlife conservation, real estate and retirement destination.Our assets bring in millions of dollars. These companies are promising economic benefits; yet, Annova and perhaps others, are requesting a 10-year tax exemption, as if they need an incentive to build their destructive terminals on the last coastal paradise available to them on the Texas coast. What happens if the companies fail? Who will be stuck with the economic burden to clean up the mess they created?
The damage will be irreparable, and we will be stuck with a useless eyesore. Our tax rates are constantly increasing at all levels of government, but this billion dollar company wants to be exempt from paying taxes that we desperately need for services, schools, salaries, infrastructure and community development.
These companies brag about their safety record, but they cannot guarantee the safety of the citizens of Port Isabel, South Padre Island, Brownsville, Laguna Vista and all surrounding communities. Layers of security measures cannot prevent all possibility of catastrophic accidents that may lead to evacuations, explosions and destruction of lives and property.
Every day, we are bombarded with news about disasters such as uncontrollable wildfires, floods, droughts, oil and chemical spills, deadly gas pipeline explosions, toxic spills into water ways, and other devastating events. I don’t want us to be a disaster statistic
Look up LNG accidents in the US, and read the Reuters article on “Blast at U. S. LNG site casts spotlight on natural gas safety,” which describes an unexplained blast April 2014 at an LNG facility in Washington State. Workers were injured, the fear of a second more devastating explosion was averted, people were evacuated within a two-mile radius and some people were sickened by fumes. The article also cites a blast in 2004 at an Algerian LNG facility that killed 27 workers and injured 74. Are the risks worth it for the people of the Rio Grande Valley? Are the risks to our health, safety, quality of life, existing jobs and natural resources worth it?
Some public entities have announced support for LNG export terminals without having considered input from those of us who oppose these terminals, not because we want to restrict economic development, but because we care about the RGV and the safety of our communities, environment and natural resources that belong to future generations.
We are constituents and voters who are asking that you please consider all facets of LNG terminals that will have serious ramifications for the Rio Grande Valley. God has blessed us with valuable resources, and we have an obligation to be the stewards of those resources.
Please join us in protecting our HOME and opposing LNG export terminals in the Rio Grande Valley. Thank you to the Laguna Madre Water District Board of Directors, the Port Isabel City Commission,and the South Padre Island Business Owners Association who passed resolutions opposing LNG terminals at the port.
Your leadership and commitment to acting in the best interest of your community and the RGV are greatly appreciated.
8 comments:
It would be much more beneficial to all that keep up with Juan's Blog if those posting information would first research their topic as opposed to listening to any one side of an issue. In the case of LNG, those againers are creating an atmosphere where they can benefit financially from the likes of the Sierra club, etc. LNG is not a Petro-Chemical plant nor is it an oil refinery like we see along the Texas Coast from Corpus to Baytown and Port AArthur. It will not spew that awful stinky smoke that pollutes our air and our bodies. It will not be flaring gas except for maybe a couple days a year while maintainence is being done on the facility, and the finished product (LNG) is not under compressed under pressure, it is refigerated at atmospheric pressure, therefore cannot EXPLODE and wipe us all out. EPA, FERC, US Fish and Wildlife will impose the safety measures on the facility. So don't get your pants in a not. it will be safe and actuall look good to those passerbys.
The bribes have already been paid in cash. It's too late now .
Jobs, pendejos! it's what we need. These homemakers writing letters don't give a shit. We need jobs in Brownsville. get that through your thick heads!!!!!!
I would like the person advising your readers to research topic before being allowed to comment on this page to research actual data stating what jobs these LNG companies create for local workers. There is no specific data - other than what they vaguely describe. Here's a link to Annova's Application - "jobs" on page 73.
http://www.texasahead.org/tax_programs/chapter313/applicants/PointIsabelISDno1079_AnnovaLNG/App-1079-Point-Isabel-ISD-Annova-LNG-LLC-PUBLIC-Application.pdf
Quote taken from SAVE RGV from LNG Facebook page: "... Here is the passage on page 38 that they are referring to: "The Company expects to create a minimum of 10 permanent full time jobs at the project site. Initial employment levels may exceed 10 jobs throughout the early stages of development. The average wage of the employees is expected to be above the minimum required average wage for manufacturing jobs the region, with an average employer paid benefit contribution of 50% of salary."
SPI Eco Nazi mob lynches LNG, Spring Break, and our children's future.
The anti-LNG mob is an SPI based white people conspiracy against jobs for Cameron County kids and economic development. These plants will bring no harm to our environment, nor to tourism. The ruthless political scare tactics and bull shit these rabid, rich white ex-hippie's and white retiree's on SPI are perpetuating can only be compared to a political lynch mob, intimidating white politicos out there on SPI.
Unemployment on rich SPI is nil, while in Brownsville, we suffer. We have nearly 50,000 kids in BISD alone, who are presently forced to leave their home and family, to seek a job somewhere up North. We demand that this brain drain be stopped.
This arrogant eco nazi, SPI lynch mob is an efite corps of imputant snobs, that need to be stopped. While they might intimidate white and coconut politicians on SPI, they do not scare anybody in broke ass Brownsville.
Cameron County's 400,000 tax payers built your damn causeway, out of what little budget we manage to squeeze out of TxDOT. The reason that causeway was built is to create jobs for Cameron County, for us brown people who were born here. Not for you to turn into a retirement home for rich white retiree's, looking for cheap beach front property, cheap drugs, and our pretty children who serve you as waitress's, waiters, bar tenders, and gardeners.
You know who you are. Your political activism is to be admired, but you need to let our island grow. You should all get out more, leave the island once in awhile, and come visit Brownsville's barrio's and meet the citizens who live here. Do not trash good jobs for our children with your bull shit and lie's about LNG plants.
You have already killed off tourism for our island, with your over zealous police department, DPS and TABC patrols, backed up by your kangaroo courts fleecing the few remaining young tourists who are brave enough to visit us. Your political antics have already killed off our Spring Break. That was an annual injection of over a billion dollars into our broke ass Cameron County jobless economy. What nerve for you to have killed off tourism for our SPI. Granted those kids were rowdy. But they were fun, and importantly, they all left after only 4 weeks, and didn't hang around and start voting.
Ask yourselves. Who lynched Spring Break ?
SPI was never intended to be a retirement home for you old foogie white people, to come an watch our birds, and sip bottled water instead of a whisky drink in one of our bars, and leave no tips for our brown skinned waiters, waitress's, maintenance people, and gardeners.
SPI belongs to the 400,000 residents of Cameron County. While we welcome you to live here, quit killing off our golden goose of job creation, our beautiful SPI--which belongs to us--not you. The purpose of our island is job creation and economic development. Not for you to sabotage both, and convert it into a free rest home for cheap old white people, looking for free Buffalo Wing night, and who don't tip.
Sincerely:
Father Balle and Pancho Villa.
Wow. Juan, you should correct Father Balli's English, and make this a headline. Tomorrow is the last day to write a letter to the feds to save jobs in Cameron County, and make our port into a true world class seaport.
This SPI mafia are the same do-gooders who also lynched our shrimping industry with their fucking Turtle Excluder Devices, called TEDS. It's hard to make a living shrimping, when these TED contraptions release half your catch from the net.
We do have a memory you damn SPI mafioso do-gooders.
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