McALLEN, Texas - An economics professor disputes the notion that NextDecade’s decision to build a massive liquefied natural gas export terminal at the Port of Brownsville shifts the axis of economic power in the Rio Grande Valley.
Historically, the upper Valley has had twice as much commercial activity than the lower Valley. But, with an $18.4 billion investment in the Rio Grande LNG project, economic activity in the lower Valley is set to soar.
Dr. Kevin M. Peek, economics professor at South Texas College, says the entire Valley will benefit from NextDecade’s arrival.
“I don't think it's going to be a shift (from the upper Valley to the lower Valley). I think what's going to happen is that it is going to bring more resources into the whole area,” Peek said.
“Those resources are going to diffuse throughout both the upper and the lower end of the Valley. And it's going to promote more economic growth and development, more opportunities for both sections of the region.”
The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service interviewed Peek at a Futuro RGV forum held at STC to analyze the work of the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force.
In his interview, Peek said there is “too much of a tendency” to focus on which community is gaining new opportunities and which area will be affected the most.
“Organically this project is going to affect the entire area because we have a different focus now. We're more focused now on how we can use these resources in a collaborative way, not just to benefit one particular group or one particular sector.”
Peek also rejected the notion that the Valley could not produce all the construction workers the LNG project is going to need. Bechtel, the company NextDecade has brought in to build Rio Grande LNG, is committed to hiring at least 35 percent of the construction workers from the Valley.
“We can produce them and we do have them,” Peek said. “It is misinformation to say we don’t have the workers. And you can quote me on that. I can send you the statistics. We’ve got the workforce, we’ve got the people who are trained and we can provide that.”
Peek added it that it would be fantastic if the upper Valley can pull off its big manufacturing plant project, a semi-conductor plant that would hire many hundreds of workers.
“There is more emphasis being placed on microchips and the federal government has allocated a tremendous amount more funding towards this. A lot of it has to do with supply side issues that arose (during the pandemic), a lot of it has to do with the conflict with China that we're all familiar with. So it's not happening soon, eventually that is going to occur in one way or another.”
Peek added: “My argument is that we all benefit from this (the big manufacturing projects). It is not the lower Valley or the upper Valley. Geographically, there's not that much of a difference for there to be these kinds of discrepancies. But, also, just economically it creates more economic opportunities. As I mentioned earlier, there's a different mentality now and that mentality is more of collaboration and working together and sharing the benefits.”
Editor's Note: The main image accompanying above news story shows Dr. Kevin Peek, economics professor at South Texas College. (Photo copyright: Madison Girault/RGG)
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