An Energy Facility Near Brownsville Could Block The Path For Texas Ocelots
Mike Fisher/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
An ocelot at the Houston Zoo.
A planned liquefied natural gas facility near Brownsville would boost energy export opportunities, but also poses a risk to Texas ocelots.
There was a time when the United States imported a significant share of its natural gas, but those days are gone. Now, theres more natural gas coming out of Texas than producers know what to do with. A lot of it is wasted just burned off. Which is why recently, companies have been looking to the Gulf Coast as a place to liquefy and then export natural gas. And one site thats drawn particular interest is the Port of Brownsville. Texas Standards Michael Marks visited the area, and says Its a valuable piece of South Texas property, both to oil and gas interests, and to wildlife.
Marks says the Annova LNG project is one of three that are proposed to export liquefied natural gas from the Port of Brownsville. Its expected to take four years to build, with an estimated cost of $4.5 billion. The site will employ 700 people during construction, and 165 personnel will be needed to operate it, once the facility is up and running.
But there are also environmental concerns, and a threat to wildlife.
Environmentalists have several concerns about these projects how they could affect air quality, and local fish populations, for example but they also think the Annova project could affect ocelots, Marks says.
Read more:
http://www.texasstandard.org/stories/an-energy-facility-near-brownsville-could-block-the-path-for-texas-ocelots/