Anti-energy left threatens suits to stop LNG facilities at the Port of Brownsville

Fuel Fix:
Environmentalists and other opponents of three proposed liquefied natural gas export terminals at the Port of Brownsville are one step closer to filing a federal lawsuit to halt the projects after losing requests to have permit decisions reconsidered.

Over the past week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied requests filed by the Sierra Club, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and other opponents to reconsider the agency's Nov. 21 decision to issue permits for the Texas LNG, Annova LNG, Rio Grande LNG and the supporting Rio Bravo Pipeline.

Under federal law, the next step for opponents seeking to stop the projects would need to file a lawsuit.

“These projects would disproportionately impact our already-marginalized Latino community, subject us to increased air pollution, and threaten our local tourism economy," Sierra Club Brownsville organizer Rebekah Hinojosa said in a statement. "With this decision, FERC has completely dismissed those concerns and signaled that we do not have the same environmental rights as other people. We will not stop fighting to ensure that these dangerous facilities are never built.”

Permits Approved: LNG projects to bring billions to South Texas

Located just a few miles north of the U.S./Mexico border, the three Brownsville projects would receive natural gas via pipeline from the Permian Basin of West Texas and other shale plays across the United States that would be supercooled into a liquid form and shipped aboard massive tankers to customers around the world.

If they land contracts and receive financing, the three projects represent more than $38 billion of private investment, thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of high-paying permanent jobs in one of the poorest regions of the United States.
...
These suits are a bigger threat to the Hispanic community in the area than the plants would be.  The projects will create jobs in an area of the state that has not benefited to date as much as other areas have in the energy boom within Texas.  The claims about environmental rights are also unfounded.  Similar plants have been built along the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Corpus Christi.  The plants would mean commerce with countries around the world.

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