Story by TIM SULLIVAN
The mayors of the biggest cities in the Rio Grande Valley have joined together to condemn a federal court ruling that voided the federal authorizations for LNG projects at the Port of Brownsville.
The mayors along with Cameron County leaders have released a statement emphatically defending the projects. The court ruling was in response to an environmental lawsuit and found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission did not conduct a proper analysis of the LNG projects’ impacts to air quality and surrounding wetlands.
FERC has since said it will prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement, and will set a new public comment period – a process that could delay the LNG projects. But in their show-of-support statement, the mayors said LNG represents a “transformative” economic opportunity and the number of jobs they would create is crucial to breaking the cycle of poverty in the Rio Grande Valley.