Brownsville Station

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

1975 ~ Hair of the Dog - Nazareth

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Golden by Carlos Nunez

I hate to politicize Carlos Nunez's photographs for my own ends but I just want you to imagine as I did what this scene might look like or any scene in the South Padre Island, Port Isabel and Boca Chica Beach area with smoke stacks from those five LNG Plants they want to build here. Hopefully we can stop them before it's too late.

Thank You Carlos Nunez for all your wild life, surf, sunsets and sunrises and the historical record you build of the beautiful south Texas landscapes of our time.

Monday, May 18, 2015

C.R.A.P. Citizens Rising Against Pollution

Meme copied from Rrun Rrun blog

copied from SAVE RGV from LNG Facebook page

NO to LNG

Few Local Benefits

These jobs are not for locals

The permanent jobs associated with the LNG export terminals will likely be high-trained positions and not locally hired. Managers of the companies mention the need for "experienced labor." At least one of the LNG companies is proposing a "plug and play" system in which the LNG equipment is built overseas and transported to Brownsville on a barge. This would, according to the fact sheet, "minimize impact" to labor markets.

A speculative industry with an unreliable future

Because natural gas costs so much to extract, refine, liquefy, transport and then regasify, U.S. LNG exports are only profitable if gas prices outside the U.S. are very high. When prices in Asia or in Europe are low due to OPEC's actions or to mild weather, profit margins are simply too low to sustain U.S. exports. Many market analysts, including Moody's Investor Services, have predicted that few planned U.S. LNG export terminals will ever be built. Many also note that the LNG market is likely to remain volatile and could be glutted for years. The LNG projects in the Port of Brownsville could very well tie the Rio Grande Valley to the boom-bust fossil fuel economy and saddle us with higher unemployment and abandoned industrial sites.

The LNG companies will not pay their fair share

The LNG companies are negotiating with Cameron County for a ten-year property tax abatement. That means that they will not be contributing to Port Isabel ISD schools, nor to the roads that their trucks will inevitably wear down, nor to the law enforcement who will back up their security operations. We the taxpayers will essentially be subsidizing them.

An explanation of how the liquefaction plant will be constructed overseas and shipped to the Port of Brownsville site from a May 2014 Texas LNG slide show

Brownsville Herald headline April 29, 2015

WHO ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE??

Filemon Vela and LNG commentary by Babs Boudreaux

Off the top of your head, do you know who Congressman Filemon Vela ran against whenever it was that he got elected? Can you name two things he said he was for or against during the race? I've scanned my brain for those files and they come up empty, save for a few scraps about him being the son of a previous mayor and a prominent federal judge who appeared to have been well liked in the community.

I'm asking myself those questions not because I dislike or have anything against Congressman Vela as a person but because I'm trying to figure out why I don't have much information about him, his candidacy and his views on industry leading up to this VERY crucial moment in time as I continue to read about his enthusiasm and zeal to stack our Port of Brownsville with as many polluting LNG plants as can be permitted. I like to think of myself as a well informed person on things that are happening around the community, but I don't recall him saying anything out of the ordinary.

To be quite honest, I don't even remember if I voted for him or his opponent, whoever he was. Pretty lame for a person who clams to be well-versed in important stuff. And as much as I'd like to point the finger at the media for not spoon-feeding me information to prepare me for Congressman Vela's courtship of LNG refineries, the blame is squarely on me, for not going beyond the TV ads and the political bromides and the sound bites on the news. To think that I might have voted for him because (1) he was the son of a judge... so give him a chance and (2) he looked like a nice enough young man who wasn't going to mess things up too bad for his hometown disappoints me deeply. There were no great expectations. If he gets us a bone like a Toyota manufacturing plant, then he's Congressman for life. What Filemon Vela is doing today is way beyond my wildest expectations. It has also exposed me once again as a superficial voter without the awareness to understand the impact that a person (thrust upon by a selection committee of a political party) and elected by us can have on our personal health, the air we breathe, our environment, the beaches we take our families on picnics and the bays and estuaries where rich and poor enjoy fishing, sailing, and the fresh gulf breeze. Excuse my stupidity, but I just took it for granted that any reasonable thinking person would turn down any offers, however tempting they appeared, to turn paradise into a toxic swamp. How can someone not want to protect the very resources that give life to our motto: "on the border by the sea" and not "on the violent border by the polluted sea?"

Reminder to myself for next election: be more informed. I'd hate to have to knock myself on the head again for voting for someone who thinks like Congressman Filemon Vela

Babs Boudreaux

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Protest Against Next Decade LNG Export Terminal and Pipeline May 21

Thursday, May 21

at 5:00pm - 7:45pm

ITEC Campus UTB (old Amigoland Mall)

301 Mexico Blvd, Brownsville, Texas 78520

The Houston company Next Decade LNG wants to build a massive polluting liquefied natural gas export terminal near Port Isabel and a 130-mile high pressure double pipeline that will slice through the ranchlands and Valley.

They are holding an 'open house' in Brownsville on Thursday from 5:00 to 7:30 pm in order to sell this project to the community.

We need your help to send a strong message to the company, to the Port, to the regulators and to our elected officials: THE VALLEY IS NOT A SACRIFICE ZONE. WE WILL NOT TRADE OUR HEALTH, SAFETY AND VIBRANT TOURISM AND FISHING ECONOMIES SO THAT AN OUT-OF-TOWN COMPANY CAN MAKE A PROFIT.

We'll be protesting outside both, so bring signs! We'll also be attending the events themselves in order respectfully challenge Next Decade LNG's claims and to make it clear to the Brownsville Navigation District that they are not representing the people's wishes.

saveRGVfromLNG.com <--- Their Website

Resource Page (Print up petitions and get them signed!!) please