OLIVEIRA: PROMISE THEM THE WORLD, AND GIVE THEM LNGs

By Juan Montoya

Patrick Anderson, who has made a run for a seat at the Brownsville Navigation District Commission has been promised that he'll get District 37 State Rep. Rene Oliveira's support when he runs again in two years.

You know Anderson. He is the pro-environment teacher from Los Fresnos ISD who has been the poorest vote drawer the two times he has run for the port.

The Anti-LNG crowd– John Young, etc., – have been promised Oliveira will introduce legislation to keep away LNGs from the Port of Brownsville. Oh, sure. He'll introduce a bill and it won't even make it out of committee. But it will pacify them enough to get another two years.

And they are willing to overlook the fact that of the two candidates running for the office – Rene and Cameron County Pct. 2 commissioner Alex Dominguez – only Rene has taken money from Annova LNG's parent corporation, Excelon.



The Sierra Club has vigorously asserted that the terminals cannot be "constructed and operated in a safe and responsible manner..," quite in opposition to Oliveira's claim to the FERC.

He wrote the energy commission that he is "confident that the project will be constructed and operated in a safe, environmentally responsible manner to the benefit of the citizens of South Texas..."

And various coastal and seashore communities and entities have come out against the terminals such as the South Padre Island city council, the Point Isabel Independent School District, the Laguna Madre Water District, the Port Isabel city commission, and the Laguna Vista town council.

Yet, Oliveria told the Valley Morning Star that:

“As a longtime legislator from the Brownsville area, I can assure you that the project has strong support from the local community and its leaders,” wrote Oliveira, chairman for the House committee on business and industry."

In fact, if it hadn't been for Oliveira, the LNGs may not have even come here. He was the state rep who wrote a letter o support to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission saying he was satisfied that they were safe and benign to the environment. And would you believe that the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter gave him a 100 percent rating?

To make sure they stay, Oliveira introduced a bill allowing navigation districts like the BND to extend the leases from 30 to 50 years in 2015. After that, the money from gas and oil PACs, including Excelon, Annova LNG's owner, started to pour in.

But those who are now endorsing Oliveira over Dominguez conveniently forget that three other county commissioners voted with him to approve a tax abatement as an incentive to one company – Rio Grande LNG – of the three who have lease options at the Port of Brownsville. Only County Judge Eddie Treviño, running for reelection, sensing votes to be had, voted against it.

Oh, by the way, he has also "promised" that this will be the last two-year term he wants to serve. Is there an echo in this district? Even we have been told that many bienniums ago. What would he do? Rest assured that he will die in office and they will have to pry the list of campaign contributions from his stiff, cold fingers.

But the list of luminaries – according to a local scurrilous blog – is growing in support of the 34-year barnacle of the Texas Leg.

Among them:

Patrick Anderson
John Young
Save RGV From LNG(?)
Jerry McHale

Bobby Wightman

DPM (Da Pendejita @ Macalitos)

Jim Barton

Et al.,

The fact that he got loaded, crashed into the rear of a car driven by a woman who had a child in the back seat, left the scene of the accident, had his live-in mate tell the police there had been no accident, and then couldn't stand up without assistance from a police woman doesn't seem to matter to them.

What if it had been your wife or your daughter driving and your child or grandchild sitting in the back seat of the car he slammed into in his drunken blindness?

We're all human right? Or as that perennial loser and dinosaur City of Brownsville commissioner Ernesto de Leon would say, "Pobrecito. Pero es muy buena gente."

Well, but Rene is from Brownsville and Dominguez grew up in La Feria. So?
Carlos Cascos was from Matamoros and no one brought that up. What about Jerry McHale? He's from Salinas, California and Tony Gray, Rene's Admin Asst. is from Omaha, Nebraska. Even the Brownsville Republic "publisher" lives in McAllen.

By that measure, Dominguez is the kid next door. What a crock.

Zeke Silva is staying in Brownsville tending to his family and business. In fact, he is too worried about his elderly mom's health to contemplate moving anywhere. He wants nothing to do with living in Austin. That's another red herring thrown out by the Oliveira shills. 

In the final analysis, it won't be up to any of us to decide who wins between Oliveira and Dominguez. It'll be up to the voters of District 37 who will decide who they want to represent them for the next two years. If they elect Oliveira again, they'll get more of the same and won't have anyone to blame but themselves.