Texas AG Ken Paxton Cowers to Huge Houston Law Firm, Denies Brownsville Citizens Access to Tenaska Info

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

His knees were knockin', his heart palpitatin'. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was "skeered" and who could blame him?

A resident of the city of Brownsville, former Mayor Pat Ahumada, had requested information about a deal between the City of Brownsville, the Brownsville Public Utilities Board and Tenaska, Inc. for a new 800 megawatt power plant to be built in Cameron County, Texas.

What likely made Paxton's heart skip a beat, though, was that Tenaska, Inc. had retained the powerful Bracewell law firm with offices in Houston, New York, Dubai, Washington, DC, Seattle and London, an army of 450 lawyers and recent annual revenue of $337,500,000, to represent them in their fight against the details of the failed Tenaska Power Generating Plant being made available to the public.

Layne Carson, Jonathan K. Frels
(Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan K. Frels)

Representing big, bad Bracewell LLC, in providing AG Paxton with reasons for denying Ahumada's request was young attorney, Jonathan K. Frels, pictured at left with his bride, Layne Carson.  

Actually, young Mr. Frels, was likely well known to Paxton, having himself worked in the office of Paxton's predecessor, former Attorney General, Greg Abbott, as Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel.

Ahumada did ask for several things:  the consultants and attorneys hired for the project and their pay, time billed by Attorney Eddie Trevino, travel expenses for Mayor Tony Martinez and Eddie Trevino, cost of easements for the project, total cost of the project and when BPUB started billing on behalf of the City of Brownsville for the project.

Frels cites, in his letter to AG Paxton, a December 3, 2016 Brownsville Herald article that reported the Tenaska project had been halted as well as the request for tax abatement.  But, Frels claims that the project was only temporarily halted and remains "under development." He states that the request to stop the tax abatement was simply to "preserve the maximum abatement period."

Frels is knowledgeable with respect to Public Information Requests, co-authoring the State of Texas pamphlet Practical Tips on Public Information Issues.

Evidently, with a straight face, Frels also claims that the information Ahumada seeks is "sensitive cost and expense information that would give developers of competing facilities undue advantage."

That is doubtful as the Tenaska plant was a bad idea to begin with, according to Fitch Bond Ratings, a service familiar with Brownsville's Public Utility Board, and, that in the past has given them a bond rating of A+, but warns that, if the City of Brownsville goes through with this imprudent deal, P.U.B.'s bond rating will fall to "negative."  It's doubtful that any "competing facilities" would steal that approach and result.

Pat Ahumada

In his followup letter to the Attorney General, Pat Ahumada illustrates why the power plant proposal is a poor deal for the city:  "Natural gas and crude oil prices has been dropping for some time, which makes the power plant project less feasible at $1.6 million per megawatt cost to BPUB, particularly when Magic Valley built a similar plant at $893,000 per megawatt. Crude oil is trading at $35 per barrel and natural gas at $1.86 per million +/-, and the forecasts is for higher production that will likely keep prices down for some time, making this venture a higher risk or not feasible. " 

The City of Brownsville is under contract to purchase 200 or the 800 megawatts the proposed plant will produce.  Tenaska has had difficulty finding buyers for the other 600 megawatts.  

Magic Valley is already producing power more economically.

It's doubtful any astute energy producers want to "steal" Tenaska's approach, except for seducing the Mayor, City Commission and BPUB into such a one-sided deal.

Just allow the hardworking taxpayers, in what the Wall Street Journal reported is the country's "poorest city," to know how much this Tony Martinez boondoggle has cost us so far.   We're already "poor."  We might as well know "how poor!"