Treviño: Trump Administration is going to be ‘very receptive’ to expansion of LNG projects

EDINBURG, Texas – Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr., says the incoming Trump Administration is likely good news for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry.

Speaking at a Rio Grande Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce event, Treviño said:

“The LNG industry is something completely new to the Valley, and in particular, obviously, the Port (of Brownsville). The NextDecade project is the largest privately funded project investment in the entire United States, over $18 billion anticipated. Once they keep going, with regards to the additional trains, upwards of $26 to $30 billion.

“Texas LNG is getting ready to do their finance or their final investment decision, probably in the first or second quarter of this year. We anticipate that the change in administration will be such that it’ll be very receptive to the expansion of the LNG industry. And I think that bodes well, obviously, for Cameron County and for the RGV.”

NextDecade is administering the Rio Grande LNG export terminal at the Port of Brownsville. Texas LNG is working on plans for an export terminal at the port.

The RGVHCC event Treviño spoke at was titled “State of the RGV.” It was held at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance. Treviño was on a panel of four county leaders. The other panelists were Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, Starr County Judge Eloy Vera, and Willacy County Commissioner Ernie Garcia.

In his opening remarks, Treviño spoke about a number of big-ticket items. In addition to LNG, he touched on the Rio Grande Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization, efforts to connect Interstate 2, Interstate 69-East and Interstate 69-Central to the rest of the national interstate network, a second causeway for South Padre Island, SpaceX, and regional cooperation.

With regards to SpaceX, Treviño said he expects the rocket-launching company to incorporate its Starbase facility at Boca Chica into its own self-rule city.

“SpaceX, as you all know, has grown by leaps and bounds. There was supposed to have a launch today to bring the latest edition of the Starship back, along with testing out a payload. They’ve moved it to tomorrow, so hopefully the weather will cooperate. But more importantly, in addition to bringing the attention and the jobs, now they’re also discussing the fact of moving their headquarters from California to Cameron County, and potentially the newest community in the Rio Grande Valley, Starbase. If they get all their paperwork done in order, then I’m sure that will probably be what occurs. But until then, Cameron County still has the oversight over Starbase.”

With regards to regional cooperation, Treviño said the four county judges in the Valley started working more closely together during the Covid-19 pandemic. He said that cooperation has only got better since.

“Judge Cortez, when he was mayor of McAllen and I was mayor of Brownsville… we made sure to take a regional approach,” Treviño said. “What we realized, and I think the proof is in the pudding, is that by working together these last several years and having some consistency in leadership at the highest level of the county, has really reaped benefits for the entire RGV.

“The Friday night mentality… all of us are going to advocate for that community that we serve, particularly… but that doesn’t mean that we do it to the detriment of our neighbors. The rest of the state and the rest of the world looks at us as one region. And once we started collaborating and working together… I’m very proud of the results.”

With regards to connecting the Valley’s interstates to the rest of the national interstate network and building on the work of the RGVMPO, Treviño said:

“Between what we’re working on, the second causeway, making sure that the Valley gets its interstate designation…we’re the largest MSA (metropolitan statistical area) in the entire country without an interstate designation. We need to continue to work (on this) because by lacking that interstate designation, the Valley has lost between four and eight times the amount of trade that our friends up in Laredo and elsewhere have been able to recoup as a result of this.

“So, working regionally has been beneficial, but there’s still a lot more to do. The merging of the MPOs… I’m proud of the work that Judge Cortez and I did together on that. We went from initially $500 million to over $3.6 billion, and we anticipate another increase in transportation dollars for the Valley.”

The moderator of the panel discussion was Julian Alvarez, executive vice president of Lone Star National Bank. Alvarez asked Treviño to elaborate on why a second causeway to South Padre Island is needed.

Treviño responded: “I think most of us here are old enough to remember 9-11. 9-11 happened on a Tuesday. That Friday night we had the unfortunate incident of the (Queen Isabella) Causeway collapse. Now, at the time, we did not know whether it was related to 9-11 or was just a terrible, terrible accident, which it ended up being. But we didn’t know, at the moment, that South Padre was basically landlocked and separated from the mainland for over 30, 45 days.

“TxDOT did a heck of a job in getting the causeway operational, but we already knew prior to the collapse that another causeway needed to be in the planning and development stage. Fast forward, or slow forward, 23 years and a year ago, last December, thanks again to the support of all the regional elected officials, our state (legislative) delegation, and, in particular, Governor Abbott, we were able to take the second causeway from a Cameron County RMA (Regional Mobility Authority) project to a state on-system project. Meaning that the State of Texas will be picking up the tab with regards to that.

“But Cameron County, CCRMA, and South Padre each committed a million dollars in the engineering phase, the feasibility, to show the state that we were putting skin in the game.”

Treviño added: “What doesn’t get as much attention, obviously, to the second causeway, is the fact that there’ll be a new state highway from the second causeway to where? To Edinburg. So, all of you here in Hidalgo County should be able to get to the island in anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes. Whereas right now it takes you an hour, an hour and a half. So, to me, that is that is a big, big deal.”

The audience applauded.

Editor’s Note: Here is a video recording of Judge Treviño’s opening remarks at the “State of the RGV” forum:

The post Treviño: Trump Administration is going to be ‘very receptive’ to expansion of LNG projects appeared first on Rio Grande Guardian.