Blog Gets Corrected by Anonymous Poster and Juan Montoya for Posting Eddie Trevino's Pic in Reporting Abatement Approval

I have sinned!.  I was wrong!  

In connection with the story of the Cameron County Commission's approval of a huge tax abatement for the conveniently named Rio Grande LNG, I posted the picture of County Judge Eddie Trevino.  

At 8:07 AM an anonymous poster gently informed me of my error by picture:
  
Anonymous October 5, 2017 at 8:07 AM

"In a 4-1 decision, Cameron County has elected to give Rio Grande LNG tax abatements.
County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. was the only dissenting vote.
Supporters and opponents alike appeared before the Cameron County Commissioner’s Court on Tuesday morning to give their final thoughts on the issue — so many, in fact, that Treviño limited each person to two minutes of comments."

Aware of my error, but, out of pocket, with Brownsville Observer music writer Diego Lee Rot and his son Jack, I hurried to get Nena home before the ABC World News Tonight with David Muir.  

Once home, I checked the internet to see that Juan Montoya of El Rrun Rrun blog had also noted my error with an article posted at 2:45 PM.

Thanks Juan.

Commissioner Alex Dominguez

Four county commissioners voted to gift Rio Grande LNG over $373 million in tax abatement:  David Garza, Sofia Benavides, Alex Dominguez and Gus Ruiz.


Of the four, I hold Alex Dominguez most accountable as he should know better than giving a huge corporation a pass on $373 million from a projected overall tax bill of $410 million.

Alex, the LNG companies are huge and make inordinate profit.  After all, they're not producing anything, just reducing natural gas to 1/600th of its original volume so it can be shipped at an incredibly economical rate.  Gifting them millions of dollars in tax abatements is inexcusable in any county, let alone the poorest in the U.S.

The process of converting gaseous propane to a liquid is intensive, releases millions of gallons of hot effluent into the estuaries and dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere.

Explosion at Algerian LNG Plant 2006

It is also a dangerous process as explosions at LNG plants over the years have proven.

And Alex, the job promises are hollow as well.  LNG companies do not hire "off the street."  The likely first question to any prospective employee is:  "Have you ever worked in LNG?"

Liability issues call for careful control on actual operators within the plant. 

Locals may be utilized in security, landscaping or building maintenance, but likely not in actual plant operation.

A more thoughtful move on the part of the County Commissioners Court would have been for Rio Grande LNG to have used tax savings to create a super fund for chemical and metal scrap cleanup after the firm pockets its obscene profits and moves along in a decade or so.

Will Cameron County be left with 28 miles of 500 ft tall LNG plants along with the hazardous waste?  Who will perform the cleanup?

Again, Eddie Trevino, you represented the citizens of Cameron County well on this issue.