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April 19, 2007
Highway Politics
By
Jack D. McNamara
“Texas is Mississippi with
good roads.”
That is our favorite Molly Ivins saying. We regret her passing and we
hope she is watching Texas’s political cavorting with the Trans Texas
Corridors, toll road privatization and La Entrada al Pacifico
(LEAP).All involve the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDoT).
Roads mean money and the pols hover around the money-road pot.
LEAP politics took some giant steps Sunday when the Midland
Reporter-Telegram (MRT) online spotlighted the differing LEAP positions
of District 74 State Representative Pete P. Gallego (D-Alpine) and
House Speaker Tom Craddick (R-Midland).
Last week the MRT served as a platform for the Midland Odessa
Transportation Alliance spokesmen as they blasted away at our fellow
Big Benders, especially the environmentalists (see our “Motran Speaks
Out”, Big Bend Sentinel, April 12, 2007). All three weeklies in the Big
Bend published front-page stories concerning the controversy last
Thursday.
Over in Ft. Davis, county seat of Jeff Davis County, one local
government stood up strong and unequivocal, “Commissioners say no to La
Entrada” on the front page of the Jeff Davis County Mountain Dispatch.
Two paragraphs, “It was quick and it was unanimous” described the
county commissioners’ resolution “opposing the plan to send thousands
of trucks through the Big Bend …”
Our other Big Bend governments are less resolute. The Brewster County
Commissioners Court has provided the county judge’s signature to a
proposal (signed also by Culberson, Presidio and Jeff Davis county
judges) for an alternative route up State Highway 170 from Presidio
past Candelaria — interesting but difficult and very expensive.
Otherwise silence from the Brewster County Courthouse gang while they
figure out how to lead and control the politics on the issue.
Presidio County Commissioners Court discussed related issues but
remains equivocal as to the LEAP.
That left it to the Big Bend Sentinel in three front-page stories.
“Chihuahua: La Entrada’s coming someday, but by rail,” informed us that
Mexicans were more realistic than the MOTRAN men because they are
concentrating on an existing rail system rather than a non-existent
super highway. Also, the Sentinel published “Midland city council
amends La Entrada resolution to support Big Bend communities.” The
exclusive report told us that the Midland City Council had passed a
resolution in support of the trade route; but only after amending the
resolution … “to alleviate the impact that the corridor would have on
the communities, wildlife, and the natural surroundings of the Big Bend
…” And lastly the Sentinel reported the county’s consideration of a
Regional Mobility Authority which might influence the issue.
This put the Midland City Council in the odd position of being more
supportive of Big Bend communities than the commissioners of Presidio
and Brewster counties, a fact known only through the reporting
enterprise of Sterry Butcher of the Sentinel. This must be what Thomas
Jefferson meant when he said that he preferred newspapers to government.
On the facts of the issue we continue to fire away at, over and behind
one another. The MOTRAN men seem particularly exercised by the
“thousands” of trucks reference from here.
One reference is found in the Texas Comptroller’s publication “Fiscal
Notes” of March 2003. The Comptroller writes, “The completion of the
new route will probably shift some of the trade from El Paso to
Presidio-Ojinaga. The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M estimates
that thousands of vehicles will take the new route once it is
completed.” Precisely,that is what the Comptroller said. You don’t
believe Texas A&M?
As concerns the narcotics smuggling we recommend the MOTRAN men check
out the Congressional testimony of El Paso DEA Agent in Charge Sandalio
Gonzalez before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on April
15, 2003. Agent Gonzalez says “We expect both the La Entrada al
Pacifico highway and this rail transport (the South Orient line) to
bring drug smuggling issues to the Big Bend/Marfa area that will
challenge DEA in the
region.” Agent Gonzalez even gave the Congress a copy of the
MOTRAN route; the same route on their website.
And of course it is on the MOTRAN website that we find the 1997
photograph of George W. Bush, then Governor of Texas, signing Texas
legislation designating the Midland-Odessa to McCamey to Ft. Stockton
to Alpine to Marfa to Presidio to Ojinaga to Chihuahua and Topolobampo
route. Standing behind the governor are Midland Representative Tom
Craddick and Alpine Representative Pete P. Gallego.
The Midland story which appeared Sunday, “Craddick, Alpine lawmaker
differ on La Entrada’s future” highlights a change in Gallego’s
position “now that the Big Bend Sierra Club and many of his District 74
constituents are fighting it …”
So? An elected representative represents his constituents? As Gallego
points out in the article, much has changed since 1997 and the article
says that Gallego said last Thursday that the emphasis should now be on
rail transport.
Much has changed indeed. We now have a consensus of experts that it is
getting hotter and drier. We knew that of course but there has been
great resistance to admitting it.
The cause of hotter/drier is greenhouse gasses, principally carbon
dioxide. That is what comes out of the 18-wheelers’ exhausts. The very
idea that we would add more such pollution to the atmosphere at
precisely the time the evidence is clear and convincing that we should
not is ludicrous.
In an editorial praising the federal courts last week (New York Times
online, April 14, 2007 “Courts and Greens”) the editors wrote, “In the
Supreme Court ruling on global warming two weeks ago (Massachusetts v.
EPA) the Court not only protected existing law but aggressively
enlarged its reach, ruling that the Clean Air Act all but required the
Environmental Protection Agency to regulate emissions of greenhouse
gases.” (See link to decision on our website www.nimbynews.com.)
Around the world political and economic attitudes are changing in light
of the growing evidence. Even Newt Gingrich has been “transformed.” He
almost hugged Senator John Kerry (of Massachusetts) after a debate in
Washington.
What these changing conditions since 1997 may mean is that the trucks
are not coming after all. There are more reasons not to build an
expensive highway route between Midland-Odessa and Topolobampo than
there are incentives to do it. If that is true, which the facts will
show, then it follows that the first fact in question is how many
trucks? Will it be less than 100, as it is today? Will it be Mr.
Perryman’s 200 per day? Or will it be “thousands” as the Texas
Comptroller speculated?
Or will it be none while the containers responsibly choose to take the
train. •
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