Treviño: I am hopeful the two LNG firms will listen to the concerns of environmentalists

3 months ago 95

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr., says he hopes the concerns of environmentalists will be listened to as two liquefied natural gas export terminals get constructed at the Port of Brownsville.

At a public hearing organized by Cameron County Commissioners Court, dozens of nature-lovers spoke out against Texas LNG’s project at the port. Despite this, county commissioners gave the company a huge tax abatement covering ten years.

“I know some people probably thought that they came to today’s meeting, and they voiced their objections and their concerns, and they are now thinking, well, they approved it anyway, so we weren’t heard,” Treviño said, in an interview with the Rio Grande Guardian soon after the vote was taken.

“I can tell them that those concerns are the ones that the court has taken into account over these last several years, as all of us continue to learn about the industry.”

As evidence of county commissioners learning more, Treviño cited the abatement Texas LNG received.

“I think that is why we negotiated a more favorable agreement with regards to Texas LNG than perhaps we had with NextDecade,” he said.

“With regard to Texas LNG, I think the county learned from its original agreement and we negotiated one that was more favorable. They still get a 40 percent net abatement, but not 90 percent as NextDecade’s was originally.”

NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG will be a much bigger operation at the port than the one Texas LNG is planning. Construction is already underway by NextDecade, which received its tax abatement from the county years ago.

“More than anything, I have made them (Rio Grande LNG and Texas LNG) aware that everyone here, either for or against the LNGs, that they (the environmentalists) are part of our community,” Treviño said.

“Their concerns are valid, and they need to be heard. And I hope going forward that they (the two LNGs) won’t ignore them just because the abatements were approved.”

The tax abatement for Texas LNG was passed on a 4-1 vote with Treviño the lone vote against.

“I know there is concern from an environmental standpoint that it (LNG) will have a negative impact. We’ve told them (the two LNG firms). We have raised those concerns, and they are committed. They have promised us that this going to be as clean – some people don’t like to use that word, clean – but as much as a clean industry as we can have with regards to the petroleum industry,” Treviño said.

“So, we know they are revising and modernizing their techniques going forward. We hope that they understand that we need them to be good stewards, especially in the areas that they are going to be building – NextDecade is already building. That they take into account the voices of those that have concerns.”

Rio Grande LNG was on the same agenda as Texas LNG at the commissioner’s court meeting. But while Texas LNG was looking for its tax abatement, Rio Grande LNG was seeing its ten-year abatement agreement with Cameron County tweaked. Treviño said this was done to benefit the county.

“What we did was a retouch of the original agreement. What we realized was there was going to be this huge increase in revenue over the first couple of years but then there was going to be this precipitous drop,” Treviño told the Guardian.

“And we were concerned that basically we would have to park or save that money for those remaining five years and we were concerned that that could create a potentially negative impact on our budgets going forward.”

Treviño said to its credit NextDecade agreed to the change.

“We asked, can we revisit this and come up with a plan and a projection that better fits our ability to know we are going to be having a steady increase and no precipitous drop off,” Treviño said. “To their credit, they said yes. And it turns out we are actually going to gain about a million dollars in tax revenue over the same time frame.”

Treviño said NextDecade did not have to renegotiate the contract.

“The deal was done. It was already approved by the court. To their credit they came and negotiated with us and helped us address that issue.”

One tweak in the agreement that NextDecade asked for and got was the ability to widen the net as far as who qualifies as a local worker. NextDecade must hit certain requirements when it comes to hiring locally.

Treviño pointed out that while the tax abatements are large, the two LNG firms will still be the largest taxpayers in Cameron County.

“Even during the abatement period, NextDecade will be No. 1 and Texas LNG will be No. 2: the two largest taxpayers in the county even with their abatement. These investments of billions of dollars, you just don’t see those every day. They don’t happen all the time.”

Editor’s Note: Here is a video interview with Judge Treviño conducted jointly by KRGV-TV and the Guardian: