SIDES LINE UP ON PRO-ANTI LNG TERMINAL PLANTS DEBATE

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: PORT ISABEL PRESS JULY 26, 2018

Editor,

We support the proposed Rio Grande LNG project because people in the Rio Grande Valley need the good-paying jobs that this proposed project will bring. An economic study by the Perryman Group shows that the project would bring thousands of jobs during construction and add a few hundred permanent jobs when the facility is operating.

A project like this will make a huge, positive difference in one of the poorest areas of Texas. These good-paying jobs will provide a better quality of life for families and create more business for many small businesses, such as for our restaurant, Mariscos De La Rosa.

We believe that the Rio Grande LNG project is safe for the community or we would not be supporting it.

We urge everyone to get behind this project as we have so that more Brownsville residents and businesses can benefit from the economic opportunities that Rio Grande LNG will provide for many years. Too much is at stake when it comes to our families, employees, customers, the community and our economy.

Rodolfo De La Rosa
Anahi De La Rosa
Mariscos De La Rosa Restaurant
Brownsville

AND THE RESPONSE IN THE MCALLEN MONITOR;

Not so fast on LNG

I recently read a letter touting the economic benefits of Rio Grande LNG due to high-paying jobs that would lift our entire economy to the levels of yet another fossil-fuel-heavy, industrial refining export terminal along the Gulf coast — but this time on our own Brownsville Ship Channel.

Rio Grande LNG will be an export terminal, which means that the profit goes to the company and not to the benefit of the entire local community. The location of Rio Grande LNG export terminal with multiple trains will damage the local air, water, land and resident population. 

The local towns of Laguna Vista, Port Isabel and South Padre Island closest to the potential LNG terminals have all voiced dissent against the LNG plants because the pollutants’ emissions will blow directly over them. But as the wind mostly blows southeasterly, the rest of the RGV will be polluted also.

As of yet, no air permits have been approved for Rio Grande LNG from TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality). So, don’t be fooled that the LNGs are a done deal. Our area’s ecology is under assault by heavy industrial petrochemical plants as well as the government. 

The U.S. government will take the local land through eminent domain for border walls, which will decimate the refuges and parks in the western part of the RGV while the LNG export industrialists pollute the neighborhoods, parks and refuges on the coast near SPI.

The environment of our coast, our frontier and our parks and refuges is under attack, and our local and Texas leaders must remember the long term need for clean air, water and a healthy population.

Diane Teter

AND THE PORT ISABEL SOUTH PADRE ISLAND PRESS:

"When I look at the December 2015 Perryman Group's 110 page The Potential Impact of the Proposed Rio Grande Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Rio Bravo Pipeline Facilities on Business Activity in Cameron County, Texas and the United States," what I see is a bought-and-paid-for promotional ad for the company.

It's all about the supposed upside of the project with not one word about any down side. It's about economics (jobs, tax revenue, etc), with no mention of problematic GHG, VOC, and particulate emissions etc. 

No mention of how much the project would devastate our lucrative tourist revenue (Texas-Mexico tourism, beach tourism, eco-tourism, our developing hike and bike trail "Active Tourism"), sustainable shrimping, and so forth."

John Young