The summer before last the park was filled with pipeliners, usually two men in a fifth wheel, each with a heavy duty diesel pickup. Most were from North Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.
Seeing all these out-of-state crews for these local projects reinforces my belief that Brownsville will not receive the number of promised jobs from LNG and SpaceX.
Recently, two men set their rig up next to me while they work at the Boca Chica SpaceX facility.
My brief conversation with one of the men I'll call Mr. G, was not intended to be a SpaceX press release, just two guys talking about work.
"What are you guys doing out there at SpaceX?" I asked.
"We're with a crew from Missouri, brought in to build a rocket," Mr. G replied.
"What happened with the first one that was built? I asked.
"Well, it sort of fell over," Mr. G responded, laughing, "but we're building this one with the right gauge steel. That won't happen this time."
"Are they getting ready for a launch?" I asked.
"Well, they fueled it up, but there were leaks everywhere," answered Mr. G.
"Then, the earth moving crew cut through the fiber optics and that broke off communication. The company was pretty pissed," he added.
Next, our conversation turned to blocking locals from Boca Chica Beach.
"It was blocked today," stated Mr. G.
"Not homeowners, though. They were allowed past the checkpoint, weren't they?" I asked.
"Not as far as I understand," answered G. "The curfew was between 10 AM and 4 PM. No one was allowed past the checkpoint during those hours. Security even combed the beach and two fishermen were escorted out of the area."
"Well, I don't want to keep you out in the cold," I told the man.
"Yeah, you take care," said Mr. G.
LNG was a lie, no jobs for Brownsville workers, only to benefit the tag teaming Lucios (Republicans calling themselves Democrats) and their dirty gas and pipeline scheme$$.
ReplyDeleteSpaceX at least it might bring in tourists. Everyone goes to Cape Canaveral to watch the launches.
No tourist goes to Texas City after the LNG explosion there.
SpaceX will probably attraction tourism but it won't be to Brownsville. Why would you try and watch a launch from Highway 4 (Boca Chica Beach road) when you can have a closer, unobstructed view from the beach at SPI? In regards to SpaceX benefitting the area with jobs, do you remember the huge salaries they told us SpaceX employees would be earning. I recollect that the minimum salary was somewhere in the mid-five figures. What they did not share was that the locals would not work for SpaceX. They would work for a contractor and will probably be lucky to get anything more then minimum wage. And now the beach has been closed for six out of ten days, including a weekend. I hope our local governments will not fall all over themselves to accommodate SpaceX and that they will approach any requests and promises made by SpaceX with a dose of skepticism.
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