Inconsistencies, Agencies and Courts

 A local community (Port Arthur, Texas) has a huge construction project in progress to build a LNG facility. It will be the third such facility in the area, and bring a tremendous amount of revenue to the local city where it's located. Unfortunately, some don't like where it is being built, don't want it to be there, and managed to have the project shut down by the Fifth Circuit of Appeals. 

Years ago, the area where these facilities are located were very rural. In one location, even the construction of homes wasn't perceived, since the land wasn't for sale. Owned by the city, only long term leases were allowed by permission. That changed, and some bought land on a brackish inland lake that attracted sports fishing, was close to the city, and allowed relief from city living. 

Port Arthur, Texas is best described as the farthest southeast part of Texas. It's surrounded by petrochemical refineries, and the city limits include the same. Surrounding the city is a hurricane protection levee that has an as-built elevation of around 15 feet above sea level. The city can flood during a hurricane, but even Ike, and Rita, didn't breach the levee and the city was spared most of the terrible flooding from the surges. Harvey was a different critter, but the problems of flooding from that storm were mostly due to the inability of the drainage district from anticipating the event and necessary procedures for pumping weren't activated in time. Rain caused the flooding and not a hurricane surge.

Port Arthur is bordered by other cities, which restrict new home construction, and the city itself has lost the citizens that would have had the vision to keep the city as a place where people want to live. It has a lot of unused real estate, but it's outside the levee, is best described as low elevation coastal plains, and developing the land is much more expensive than any developer can envision. Industrial developers are a different matter. With a convenient ship channel, two rail lines, and multiple highways, the area has a purpose other than homes. 

In the mid 90's, Chenier started building an LNG facility right across the river from Port Arthur in Louisiana. Soon after that, Golden Pass started the construction of the same type of facility in Texas by Port Arthur. Both facilities were designed to turn liquified natural gas into a vapor for U.S. consumers. Chenier came on line long enough for one ship to arrive. Golden Pass was incomplete at that time, and both soon found the market had turned their facilities into huge money pits. Discoveries in domestic natural gas ended the market for imports, so both facilities were idled. This led to another plan.

If both facilities could be converted to turning natural gas vapor into a liquid, the market for export was something to be taken advantage of. Of course, this involved some legal work, permits and investors, but all came together for the conversions. Chenier was completed and started online. Golden Pass is projected to be finished in 2024. 

To understand the magnitude of this construction, you would have to  watch it over years. The tens of billions required is almost mind boggling and the number of workers is something to behold. Traffic was, and is, a problem. Housing is the same. Construction of this magnitude requires thousands of travelers and many live in travel trailers. The demand for RV parks increased dramatically, and housing costs went up. Many travel the 90 miles from the Houston area twice daily for the high paying construction jobs. Without enough locals to man the projects, workers come from out of state, out of country and all over Texas for the jobs. To make things better for the workers, Port Arthur LNG is now in the process of building an LNG export facility. As phases in the work change, many will just have to change to another project within a few miles of the other project. For some construction travelers, this is as good as it gets. They have a long term source of income, and don't have to travel again to another location for years.

Now, due to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)irregularities in permitting, an environmental group found a way to shut down the newest project. The Fifth Circuit Opinion is here. It's a good opinion, since it states arbitrary ways of permitting isn't the correct way to handle regulations. The bad thing is it shuts down the project, many workers may find they have to leave, and this is all happening at a time of year when government agencies go into slow motion for the holidays and push off to next year anything they can. With attorneys and courts involved, many workers may find their lives drastically changed due to the lack of income.

Reading the opinion exposes many things needing addressing. That, and when you consider how much of a dead-end the environmental group will face, the fact what they're most trying to protect is only a few homes that weren't there thirty years ago, the emission guidelines that are impossible to achieve, and the economic impact on Port Arthur, this entire mess was avoidable. How it turns out is to be seen, but if the permitting process is straightened out, the project will go forward and the environmental group will find their efforts are generally frowned upon. That, and I see the group shrinking when the small group of people affected find they can sell their property at a substantial profit to the facility owners and move elsewhere. Those so hardheaded to remain will still have to deal with the fact a noisy, large and busy shipping facility is still there. All their efforts to prevent the change will be fruitless and probably expensive. That, and since the most affected areas by the facilities lay outside the protection levee, another hurricane Rita, or Ike, will inundate, lead to evacuation, and returning to a home too damaged to live in.