{"id":10188,"date":"2019-05-03T17:13:42","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T17:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=10188"},"modified":"2019-05-03T17:13:42","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T17:13:42","slug":"nextdecade-to-invest-millions-in-brownsville-ship-channel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=10188","title":{"rendered":"NextDecade to Invest Millions in Brownsville Ship Channel"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_10184\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10184\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10184\" src=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/imagejpeg_0.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/imagejpeg_0.jpg 600w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/imagejpeg_0-300x148.jpg 300w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/imagejpeg_0-405x200.jpg 405w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-10184\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Officials during the funding agreement ceremony at the Port of Brownsville. Courtesy photo<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>by Tony Vindell\/LFN<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>A new era of more cooperation between the private and public sectors has begun.<\/p>\n<p>NextDecade Corp., or a liquified natural gas company planning to construct and operate a new plant project, has committed to fund the deepening of the Brazos Island Harbor Channel.<\/p>\n<p>In local parlance, the channel is better known as the Brownsville Ship Channel, or a 19-mile stretch from the port to past the jetties.<\/p>\n<p>NextDecade as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, county, city, state and Brownsville Navigation District officials were on hand for a signing ceremony held Wednesday, April 24 in the commissioners\u2019 boardroom.<\/p>\n<p>Among them were Dan Bruillette, US. Deputy Secretary of Energy; Texas Secretary of State David Whitley and Matt Schatzman, president and chief executive officer with NextDecade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe BIH funding agreement we are signing today represents another important step towards realizing the incredible potential for large-scale job creation in Cameron County,\u201d Schatzman said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder the terms of the funding agreement, NextDecade will privately fund key improvements to the Brownsville Ship Channel. These improvements will benefit existing Port tenants and pave the way for future development of the Port.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Houston-based company plans to pump millions of dollars for the channel deepening project as well as widening the area near the entrance of the channel to make it safer for ships coming in and going out.<\/p>\n<p>The current depth of the ship channel is 42 feet and the upcoming project expected to start in the first half of 2020 will give the channel an additional 10 feet of depth.<\/p>\n<p>According to NextDecade, completion of the project is scheduled for 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Ed Campirano the port\u2019s director, described the funding agreement as a huge step in the right direction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a monumental project,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is heading toward a successful completion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Campirano said the cost of the deepening of the ship channel has been estimated at around $350 million.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey could fund as much as half of that,\u201d he said, referring to the agreement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis commitment from NextDecade is very significant.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Tony Vindell\/LFN A new era of more cooperation between the private and public sectors has begun. NextDecade Corp., or a liquified natural gas company planning to construct and operate a new plant project, has committed to fund the deepening of the Brazos Island Harbor Channel. In local parlance, the channel is better known as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10189,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10188\/revisions\/10189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}