LNG AND WEST RAIL ROAD LIKELY ISSUES IN CASCOS VS TREVINO RACE

County Judge Eddie Trevino

The 5,000 residents, many from West Brownsville, who signed the petition against the West Rail Road will not forget County Judge Eddie Trevino's promise at FOUR public hearings to do what he could to block the road.

Trevino has since vacillated on his "no-road" promise, signing a joint city/county resolution admitting that “the design for the corridor will have a segment with a road, but will also have a robust and rich hike and bike trail or green space.”

Common sense calls for the 100 foot Union Pacific easement, that cuts through some of the most dilapidated housing in Brownsville, to include an artery linking West Brownsville and downtown with I-69.

The representation of Brownsville as some sort of cycling mecca is a total fabrication by City Commissioner Rose Gowen, a thinly disguised attempt to promote a personal legacy at the expense of real needs of the city.

Oh, the bike trail aspect of the West Rail project will be used by octogenarian cyclist Gene Novogrodsky and several operators of triciclos, who scavenge Brownsville's alleys nightly for cardboard and other recyclables.

Another hot issue for the county judge's race will be the location of three liquefied natural gas plants at the Port of Brownsville.  The profit is made through a highly polluting process that compresses natural gas to 1/600th of its volume, making shipping extremely economical, thus profitable.

LNG Plant Explosion 2006

The LNG companies have been relentless in pursuing tax abatements from the county and the Point Isabel School District with the inept County Commissioner Court already agreeing to a $373,000,000 tax abatement to ONE company, Rio Grande LNG.

Alex Dominguez, a candidate for State Representative, District 37, feebly argued at a recent candidate forum, that in lieu of the taxes, Rio Grande LNG would provide community services worth "as much as $65 million."  That's laughable as those are Rio Grande LNG's estimate of the worth of those considerations, but Dominguez naively parroted the company's talking point.

Eddie Trevino, to his credit, had the political sense to vote "no" on the abatement, but it passed anyway.

Trevino's opponent in the judge's race, former County Judge Carlos Cascos, will get an opportunity soon to express his viewpoint on these issues.