Source: Houston Chronicle
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service gave a nod of approval to Annova LNG’s proposed export terminal at the Port of Brownsville after the Houston liquefied natural gas company pledged to set aside more than 1,400 acres of land and enact several other measures to help preserve the endangered ocelot and jaguarundi.
Seeking to build a facility that will export 6 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas per year, Annova LNG’s proposed project is still waiting on a permit decision from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
But a Oct. 21 biological opinion issued by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service may have put the project one step closer to approval. Agency officials determined that the project — which is located located a few miles away from the U.S./Mexico border — “will not likely jeopardize the continued existence” of the ocelot and jaguarundi, endangered wildcats whose only presence in the United States is in the Rio Grande Valley.
The favorable opinion is contingent on seven conservation measures that Annova LNG voluntarily agreed to. In addition to creating an 185-acre wildlife corridor on its nearly 800-acre property, the company has pledged to dedicate another 1,250 acres of land for ocelot and jaguarundi conservation.
In addition to creating the three wildlife preserves, Annova LNG has agreed to fund a program to improve ocelot habitat on private ranches, fund a graduate student fellowship to study the cats, build wildlife crossings, require a 25 mph speed limit on its property and install lighting that minimizes impacts to the ocelot and other species.
Annova LNG’s 1,435-acre land dedication is on top of a separate pledge by Houston liquefied natural gas company NextDecade to set aside another 1,000 acres for ocelot conservation. Seeking to reduce noise and air pollution, Annova LNG has also pledge to use electric motors and get all 435 megawatts of power needed to run them from renewable sources such as wind and solar.
“Our mission is to be the most sustainable U.S. provider of liquefied natural gas, and this official opinion reflects our close consultation with the Service over the past several years to protect and conserve habitat for these protected and other valued species in the Rio Grande Valley,” Annova LNG CEO Omar Khayum said in a statement.
Launched in 2013 and headquartered in Houston, Annova LNG is owned by a consortium of four companies. Chicago utility company Exelon owns 80.55 percent while Enbridge, the Canadian pipeline company, now holds a 10.5 percent stake. Nebraska engineering, procurement and construction firm Kiewit and Kansas energy technology firm Black & Veatch each own 4.475 percent.
Annova LNG, Rio Grande LNG and a third project named Texas LNG face stiff opposition from a coalition of Rio Grande Valley shrimpers, fishermen, environmentalists, neighbors and communities working under the banner Save RGV from LNG.
In a previous interview, Sharon Wilcox, a Texas organizer for the Washington, D.C.-based environmental group Defenders of Wildlife, said the proposed plants will undo decades of conservation policy. Over the past 80 years, the federal agency has spent $90.4 million to buy nearly 158,000 acres of land in the Rio Grande Valley to develop a cross-border wildlife corridor for the ocelot, jaguarundi and migratory birds.
“We find this opinion to be inconsistent with the agency’s own scientific findings and wildlife management goals,” Wilcox said about the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in a previous interview. “This region is home to the last remaining population of ocelots in Texas and these LNG facilities put their survival in jeopardy.”
