Texas LNG state permit placed on hold after Port Isabel objection
The Texas Commission of Environmental Quality sent Texas LNG’s state permit application for an export terminal at the Port of Brownsville for an administrative hearing, delaying the project for at least five months.
During a Wednesday morning meeting, TCEQ commissioners sent the Houston liquefied natural gas company’s application to the State Office of Administrative Hearings for a contested case hearing based on a request from the city of Port Isabel.
Texas LNG is seeking permission from state and federal regulators to build an export terminal along the Brownsville Ship Channel that would be capable of making 4 million metric tons of LNG per year. The project that faces stiff opposition from a coalition of neighboring communities, fishermen, shrimpers, environmentalists and Native American groups.
TCEQ commissioners said during the hearing that while the proposed project is located outside Port Isabel’s city limits it falls within its extra-territorial jurisdiction. Texas LNG Chief Operating Officer Langtry Meyer said the Houston company remains confident it would receive a state air permit.
“Texas LNG is committed to operating our project in an environmentally responsible manner, including using electric motors to minimize air emissions,” Meyer said in a statement. “By delivering clean, safe, low-cost Texas natural gas energy to our customers around the
world, Texas LNG can contribute to a cleaner global environment.”
Although multiple individuals, communities and groups had requested “affected persons status” for Texas LNG’s state permit application, Port Isabel was the only party to receive it due to project’s location along State Highway 48.
TCEQ commissioners ordered that the contested case hearing take place within the next 150 days in Austin to address health and safety issues and impacts on plants and wildlife, among other concerns.
Port Isabel City Manager Jared Hockema told the Houston Chronicle that city officials are preparing for the hearing and plan to travel to Austin to testify against the project.
“We are gratified that the commission recognized the clear impact that the proposed project will have on Port Isabel,” Hockema said. “The city will continue to fight to protect our environment, our economy and our way of life from being destroyed by these LNG facilities.”
The Texas LNG facility is one of three liquefied natural gas export terminals proposed to be built at the Port of Brownsville. The projects represent nearly $40 billion of investment, thousands of construction jobs, hundreds of permanent jobs and an opportunity to boost U.S. exports.
Federal permit decisions are pending, but TCEQ officials granted a state permit to Houston liquefied natural gas company NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG project in December.
Two community groups — one made up of fishermen and shrimpers and the other made up of residents from the nearby colonia of Laguna Heights — asked TCEQ for affected persons status in all three permit applications. The case for Annova LNG remains pending, but TCEQ commissioners denied affected persons status to both groups in the Rio Grande LNG and Texas LNG applications.
Kathryn Youker, a Texas RioGrande Legal Aid attorney who represents both groups, called the decision “environmental discrimination.”
Both groups sued TCEQ in the months after Rio Grande LNG got its state permit. The lawsuits remain pending before a pair of state district court judges in Austin. Members of the two groups will be able to attend and speak at the upcoming contested case hearing for Texas LNG, but Youker said they are nonetheless considering their other legal options.
“We’re being left out of the entire process,” she said. “There’s a reason why these big polluting projects end up in the backyards of poor people.”