This is a short version of what is happening concerning our fight to stop LNG terminals and pipeline expansion. Each piece of news will be briefly highlighted and a source will be provided. We hope to send this out every 2 weeks.
We can make a difference. Be informed and be ready to act. LNG in the Rio Grande Valley is by no means a done deal.
While all three LNG projects (Rio Grande LNG/Rio Bravo Pipeline, Annova LNG, and Texas LNG) received FERC approval in November, more permits are necessary before any of them can proceed. None of the projects have their 404 permits from the Army Corps of Engineers (this permit allows a project to dredge & fill (i.e. destroy) wetlands.
Each project has to get an air permit (permission to dump pollutants into our air) from TCEQ. Rio Grande LNG has that permit but it is being challenged in court.
* Annova LNG has been issued its draft permit but it may be challenged in a contested case hearing. *Texas LNG’s air permit is in limbo, due to an ongoing contested case hearing challenge by Port Isabel, Long Island Village and a Launa Heights colonia group.
The City of Port Isabel, the mayor of Port Isabel and a city commissioner have just filed suit against the Brownsville Navigation District over its lease agreements with three liquefied natural gas companies that want to build LNG export terminals at the Port of Brownsville.
For a recent report on this, see "State permit for Texas LNG remains up in the air," Sergio Chapa, 11-25-2019, Houston Chronicle, https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/State-permit-for-Texas-LNG-remains-up-in-the-air-14856457.php. It quotes the Texas RioGrande Legal Aid attorney for the colonia group as saying ""We provided proof that there were better technologies to control source emissions," Gaines said. "The proposed Rio Grande LNG next door had better technology they wanted to use. They're not even looking at other facilities in the same industry or region."
Note also that TRG Legal Aid recently petitioned the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to order TCEQ to reconsider its ruling that the colonia group and the Shrimpers and Fishermen of the RGV did not qualify for Contested Hearings regarding the air quality permit it issued for NextDecade's Rio Grande LNG project here (Case 19-60558 filed 09-24-2019).
Another major hurdle that each LNG Project has to cross is a Biological Opinion from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service that says their project will not jeopardize any federally endangered species, which essentially means the ocelot.
Fish & Wildlife Service has been trying to create an ocelot travel corridor from Laguna Atascosa to the Bahia Grande and the Rio Grande & Mexico for more than 30 years, and the LNG projects (especially Annova) block that corridor. Nevertheless, Fish & Wildlife has given their ok to Rio Grande and Annova, and we expect they will do the same with Texas LNG.
We have lawyers (led by Sierra Club senior attorney Nathan Matthew) who are looking to see if we have solid legal grounds to take them to court. Our lawyers have also filed motions to FERC for a rehearing of their decisión to approve all 3 projects. If those motions are denied we will need to decide whether to take FERC to federal court.
Three Port Commissioner positions are up for a vote 05-02-2020: Districts 1, 3, & 5 (presently held by Ralph Cowen, John Reed, and Sergio Tito Lopez). The deadline for filing is 02-14-2020 at 5:00 pm. For information on who can run, how to file, how to appoint a campaign manager, and how to file a campaign finance report, go to https://www.portofbrownsville.com/commission/bnd-election/.
As you can see, there is a lot going on! We need your concern and support more than ever. Please visit our website, savergv.com, and feel free to ask questions or make suggestions. We’re all in this together!
17 comments:
VOTE FOR A TRUE POWERHOUSE.
ERIN GÁMEZ
Democratic candidate for Texas State Representative District 38
"AND JUSTICE FOR ALL"
Texas District 27 Senate
VOTE SARA STAPLETON BARRERA OR RUBÉN CORTEZ
LNG, EDDIE LUCIO III AND JR YOU SUCK HARD AND SWALLOW SLOW. CHUPANDO ARROZ CON POPOTE.
Enbridge posted the landowner condemnation cases in the BROWNSVILLE HERALD newspaper, as required by the state, which revealed that STATE REP.. EDDIE LUCIO III’s EDDIE LUCIO JR law firm REPRESENT LNG PIPELINE COMPANY to get land from local landowners FOR FREE.
If she is a power house how come she hasn't said any thing where she stands concering LNG or is she a fake power house? O ya esta vendida
LNG is coming and there seems little the Sierra Club attorneys can do. Let's face it, when it comes to jobs or ocelots....the jobs will win. LNG is a reality for the Port and is likely to be for the rest of us. Our issue should be; to make the BND stop taxing us.
Erin Gamez is a nobody! Vote for the Powerholder - Lucio!!!!
LNG only chose to come to the valley because it is mostly poor and brown. They want a place to dump all these cancer chemicals, a place to locate so that if it explodes its just a bunch of poor people who get killed.
They should have gone near Port Mansfield to a remote, isolated place.
One of these tankers could blow up and take out Schlitterbaun in which case, Spring Breakers, Republicans and Democrats from all over the US, white, black and brown families will die. Poor planning, stupid greed.
How can we reverse these poor decisions ?
Like SpaceX, LNG and Property Tax freebies are all tax subsidies for rich people.
I REPRESENT LNG
EDDIE LUCIO III
EDDIE LUCIO JR
Eddie Lucio have both sent letters supporting the projects.
The Cameron County Commissioners Court handed NextDecade a $373 million.
Local Environmentalists Horrified to Learn Eddie Lucio III on Payroll of Pipeline Giant. Because EDDIE LUCIO III AND EDDIE LUCIO JR needs to keep taking money from LNG. EDDIE LUCIO III AND EDDIE LUCIO JR "WE DO NOT REALLY CARE WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM. WE JUST NEED TO FEED OUR CHILDREN."
I guess someone has to say it.
I was thinking about voting for Erin, but if I have to see one more of these insipid Campaign notes I'm not voting for her.
Ok she's a power house just stop it.
There plenty of non profits that recieve contributions from LNG i.e. United Way, Boys and Girls Clubs and Boy Scouts think about who your supporting
juan talk about climate change, this will be a great impact on our local ecosystem, I dont care what anyone says, local county officials were wrong to have approved this and shove it down county residents throats.
February 9, 2020 at 9:10 PM
They do it just to keep idiots like you quiet, but when the shit hits the fan where will YOU be pendejo...
I too will not vote for a so call powerhouse nunca...
DON NOT VOTE FOR A TRUE POWERHOUSE.
vote for a fake powerhouse what?
The mayor and the county judge should do the same as PI but won't son puros mamones and that includes la bruja del southmost that has not done anything to that third world barrio... pendejos keep voting for her.
If the pijos don't vote how does she win all the time? Where's the FBI?
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