BROWNSVILLE RESIDENT'S OP-ED AGAINST LNG

by Laura Miniel

Living in Brownsville all my life, the Island has always been one of our favorite places to visit and a gem of the RGV.  

But I fear the beautiful, clean, tranquil place that we love is in danger from the proposed, extremely explosive LNG facilities.

I fear for the Port Isabel families who would live near it, Long Island Village families who are directly threatened, South Padre families, and Brownsville families downwind.

I fear we won't realize what we will have lost until it is gone.

The reason these polluters chose us, is because the valley is poor and largely Hispanic. Port Isabel is 70% Hispanic and Brownsville is  over 90% Hispanic, according to the census. When the FERC discussed approving the plants, one of the Commissioners explicitly stated that residents in our low-income communities could not afford to hire consultants and lawyers to protect our interest in clean air and water. Polluting, dangerous companies feel it's ok to put one of the largest LNG export installations in the world, in our backyard. Poison our air and living areas, and threaten people's lives and way of life.  White families and non-Hispanic families have also invested their life savings to buy homes and live on the Island, whose safety and wellbeing is disregarded as well. It boils down to profits over people, multimillion dollar companies that get hundreds of millions in tax breaks from some of the poorest people in the state, while seeking to profit from the degradation of the air, water and living spaces for everyone who lives here.  

This is a map provided by one of the LNG applicants.  It shows the potential blast radius of an LNG tanker if it were to ignite along the channel, and the places and people who would be in the blast zone.  As you can see, the blast zones include other LNG plants, the community of Long Island Village, the causeway, Isla Blanca and Schlitterbaun area. Any type of incident could be catastrophic in terms of lives and property. This does not even begin to consider the potential catastrophic damage a wayward SpaceX rocket or pieces of rocket, might cause much less the size of the blast radius of one LNG tower exploding and setting the one next door on fire.

There is hope. Another community in Oxnard, California, also 70% Hispanic, was successfully able to fight off a highly-polluting energy plant that wanted to build in their community.  Their story is instructive.

For decades, polluters targeted Oxnard as an industrial dumping ground, instead of the wealthier, whiter communities of Malibu and Santa Monica nearby. Oxnard's population consists of primarily Hispanic, foreign-born, and low-income residents. The asthma rates in some of their neighborhoods are higher than 90% percent of the rest of the state.

A coalition of residents, environmental activists, and local elected officials protested NRG’s proposal. 

Tom Steyer, currently a candidate for President, heard about their efforts and asked how he could help. He attended state hearings with them, testified against the power plant, wrote articles, and rallied supporters around the state.

Together, Tom and the people turned the tide. State officials announced their decision to reject the gas facility and NRG withdrew its application. The power project was dead.

Personally, this is my #1 issue as it is something that directly affects me. We have a history of cancer in my family and we all know industrializing our immediate environment will not positively affect anyone's health. Cancer treatment is expensive and many here can't afford it. Nearly everyone I know has a relative who has had cancer, including several in my family. My thought process is, let's stop a dangerous industry from setting up directly in my backyard, now, and that is my priority. I mean no offense to any other candidates, I know running for office is hard and I respect everyone. But I put the health and safety of my own area and immediate living environment #1. This is a critical election and I hope everyone will take the time to consider what is at stake, the people who have taken time out of their lives to run for office and their platforms, and take time to vote between now and March 3rd.  Early voting is going on now through the 28th at the Port Isabel City Hall.

Sincerely,

Laura Arroyo Miniel  

Brownsville resident