The Valley municipalities and Cameron County must tax the proposed LNG facilities at the Brownsville Ship Channel, if they are foolish enough to build this bad investment.
LNG will cost us huge amounts in disaster response training – and eventual disasters as the facilities age, along a salt water channel, and still, even at the proposed 12 feet elevation, subject to storm surges as coastal water levels rise.
Other clear health and economic problems LNG produces are increases in asthma among the elderly and children.
Sand from all our beaches will slide down back into the ship channel which must be dredged deeper to accommodate the huge LNG barges.
Taxation would only partly cover even just the basic costs of the infrastructure we would provide.
Thus, the tax abatements the already hugely wealthy LNG corporations are asking for, take us in exactly the wrong direction.
Beware the arrogant immorality of big business today.
Imagine the future: huge, empty city block-sized 19 story tall installations on Rte. 48 where today many people fish. Rare wildlife lives and breeds there.
Even if “Natural Gas” (but it’s not natural, it’s fracked gas already burdening our atmosphere with a heavy carbon footprint) is, as arguments for its temporary use go, renewables and conservation are already beginning to dominate the energy market.
When renewables are Business as Usual, these LNG plants will be completely obsolete, ugly hulks.
Tax them to the hilt. Do not permit them to take advantage of our Valley paradise with abatements of the taxes they would owe for 10 years.
By then, LNG is surely obsolete.
Sally Stueber Merrill Harlingen
