CROSBY – “It’s like the circus is coming to town!” exclaimed one Republican resident of the combined excitement and trepidation of having the presidential motorcade come to an unincorporated area that voted for him in the Presidential election by a whopping 74%.
A flurry of questions poured into the Star-Courier concerning where folks could get a view or when traffic could be expected to be stopped on FM 2100 or Foley Road.
Arrival at the International Union of Operating Engineers International Training and Education Center comes in controversy. Presidential executive orders to facilitate making petrochemicals and speed up pipeline construction in the wake of four petrochemical fires in less than one month and the union facility recently became non-profit, thus reducing taxes paid to local first responders. White House officials announced the orders will grant incentives for investors to make an energy infrastructure, streamlining pipeline projects. Last May Trump issued a permit to initiate the delayed Keystone XL Pipeline.
The International Training and Education Center is about 266 acres between Newport and Foley Road.
President Trump indicated reducing red tape around pipelines would allow the US to remain undisputed leader of the world in natural gas and oil in the future.
Of course, the new permit is under court challenge, environmentalists sued over the issue of Congress, not the executive branch, is granted constitutional rule over federal lands.
Trump has added onshore and off shore drilling. The Department of the Interior is currently in the first stage of developing a plan to build more offshore drilling platforms in the Atlantic. States that thrive on tourism are not so happy with that development.
In his state of the union address in February, Trump stated, “We have unleashed a revolution in American energy.”
Environmentalists already say the visit in light of recent local explosion and death adds insult to injury as the intent is reducing states’ power to protect citizens from hazardous production.