Ike Dike wins favor
Industry, political leaders hasten push for coastal barriers
Hurricane Harvey hit the Houston energy sector hard, knocking out refineries and chemical plants for weeks, but not as hard as it could have if the storm had taken a slightly different path and sent waves and water surging straight up the Houston Ship Channel.
Now, local industry and political leaders are moving quickly to gain federal support for building a system of protective barriers against the possibility of far more destructive storm surges in the future, when powerful storms are expected to happen more frequently as ocean waters get warmer.
“The sympathy level for this area is high. This is our opportunity,” state Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood said. “We need a direct appropriation from Congress with a deadline: ‘Here’s the money, go build it.’ ”
Getting funding for coastal barriers was a major topic Thursday at the Gulf Coast Industry Forum in Pasadena, which, among other industry and political leaders, attracted Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
The idea for such a system to protect Galveston Bay, the Houston Ship Channel and much of the Houston region from a massive storm surge was born nine years ago, after Hurricane Ike battered the region with high winds and violent seas and left 74 dead in Texas. Also known as the coastal spine, the protective barriers would comprise a system of floating gates, modeled loosely on the Netherlands’ flood protection system. Texas Land
Commissioner George P. Bush recently asked the Trump administration for the project’s estimated $15 billion price tag.
Congress already has approved a $15 billion in disaster relief for Houston and the Gulf Coast, which Cruz called a down payment. He said that providing more funding to help the region recover is at least one issue on which Congress and President Donald Trump agree. Cruz did not specifically talk about funding for the Ike Dike.
Cruz took a helicopter ride with U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday to survey Harvey’s damage. He said the speaker seemed surprised with Houston’s sheer size, and how the damage spread across most of the Texas Gulf Coast.
“What’s hard for people to grasp is the geographic scope of this storm — 250 miles,” Cruz said. “The damage just keeps going and going and going.”
The impact of Harvey has been felt well beyond those 250 miles. Harvey shuttered almost a quarter of the nation’s oil refining capacity and gasoline prices jumped nearly 20 percent nationally. More than 90 percent of those plants are back online now, although many are still operating at reduced capacities.
Taylor said it could have been much worse. He showed a video that depicted a fictional Category 5 hurricane running up the Ship Channel, a scenario that could kill more than 2,300 people and damage industry so badly that the region’s refining sector would be knocked offline for about two years.
That, in turn, would trigger $8-per-gallon gasoline nationwide and long lines of people fighting amid severe fuel shortages, the video said. It would also produce shortages for jet fuel, military-grade fuel, construction materials and plastics.
About $70 billion is expected to be invested in Texas Gulf Coast petrochemical plants through 2023, according to the American Chemistry Council trade group.
In a recent interview prior to Thursday’s forum, Perry, a former Texas governor, said as the U.S. energy industry grows, it might make sense to build future refineries and other energy facilities in other parts of the country.
“The storm is a great example of why we need to be having that conversation,” he said.
Perry, however, did not raise the issue at the forum. He instead praised the ongoing energy growth in the Houston area, noting the U.S. is set to become a net natural gas exporter and that “the United States now has a decisive competitive advantage in the making of petrochemicals.”
Just on Thursday, the newly merged DowDuPont announced it started operations at its massive new chemicals and plastics expansion south of Houston in Freeport.
Earl Shipp, Dow’s vice president of Gulf Coast operations, said the region needs the “resolve” and financial support to build projects like the coastal spine, especially when he sees the homes of many of Dow’s employees flooding.
“You can’t sell Houston if that’s the narrative people see when they look at us,” Shipp said. “But there are solutions.”
“The sympathy level for this area is high. This is our opportunity. We need a direct appropriation ...” State Sen. Larry Taylor