Local Citizens and Entities Awarded Party Status in Dos Republicas Coal Partnership Case

Railroad Commission of Texas Hearings Examiner Marcy J. Spraggins decided that seventeen local citizens and five local entities are awarded party status in Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s application to renew, revise, and expand Surface Coal Mining Permit 42A, Eagle Pass Mine, pending before the Railroad Commission of Texas on Friday, July 22, 2011. Approved as party-status are the City of Eagle Pass, Texas, the County of Maverick, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, the Maverick County Hospital District, and the Maverick County Public Health and Environmental Association.

Also approved as party-status are local individuals, farmers, ranchers, and landowners including Jim and Rosa O’Donnell, E.K. and Betty Taylor, Walter and Layde Herring, Alonzo and Eva Gonzalez, Humberto and Ana Marie Gamez, Albert and Tina Ellis, Gabriel and Leticia de la Cerda, Mike P. Hernandez, Anson Howard, and Ernesto Ibarra.

Denied party-status are Luis F. Martinez, Carlos E. de la Peña, D.D.S., Diana L. Sanchez, Gloria A. Rodriguez, Francisco Garcia, Jesus Fuentes, Claudio Sandoval, Jesus H. Sandoval, Jose Sandoval, Claudio Sandoval Martinez, Maverick Land and Cattle Company, Mr. and Mrs. R.M. Espinoza, Mr. and Mrs. Ramon Ferrer, Mr. and Mrs. Hierro, Mr. and Mrs. Jose Morado, Mr. and Mrs. Alfonso A. Trevino, Mr. and Mrs. Enrique Trevino, Mr. and Mrs. Santos Torres, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Guillermo Villarreal, Trosser Martin, and Kim Laco.

Those entities and individuals granted party-status will be allowed to participate in the final hearing on the merits and will be allowed to present their own witnesses and expert witnesses as well as question Dos Republicas Coal Partnership and the Railroad Commission of Texas witnesses and expert witnesses.

Hearings Examiner Marcy J. Spraggins also stated that she will hold the final “hearing on the merits during either the week of September 19 or the week of September 26, 2011.

An overwhelming majority of local citizens and governmental entities oppose the granting of a renewal, revision, and expansion of Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Permit 42A, Eagle pass Mine , because of the contamination and pollution the surface strip coal mine will cause the community and its citizens, including children.

Dos Republicas Coal Partnership is a subsidiary owned by Mexico’s Altos Hornos de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. and the Grupo Acerero del Norte, S.A. de C.V.

Dos Republicas Coal Partnership seeks to open and operate a surface strip coal mine three miles north of the City of Eagle Pass, Texas, in a densely populated area of Maverick County Texas, and ship the coal by Union Pacific Railroad through the City of Eagle Pass into Rio Escondido, Coahuila, Mexico, where the coal will be burned at the Mexican-government owned, Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) Jose Lopez Portillo coal-fired thermoelectricity plant (Carbon I) and the Carbon II coal-fired thermoelectricity plant, which have been documented to be two of the largest polluters of carbon dioxide and mercury to the United States, including the State of Texas. Local citizens and governmental entities decry the Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Eagle Pass Mine as an environmental injustice.

Texas Governor Rick Perry’s support of Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Eagle Pass Mine project via Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade may become an issue in his soon-to-be-announced bid for the Republican Party’s Presidential Nomination in the 2012 United States election. Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade chastised a delegation of the City of Eagle Pass and Maverick County public officials on February 16, 2011, in Austin, Texas, for the community’s opposition to the Mexican-owned Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Eagle Pass Mine project. Local officials explained to Secretary of State Hope Andrade that the community of Eagle Pass and Maverick County overwhelmingly oppose and do not want the Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Eagle Pass Mine project.

Even the Maverick County Republican Party opposes the Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Eagle Pass Mine project passing a resolution against it and speaking against it at the railroad Commission of Texas June 14-15, 2011, public hearing in Eagle Pass, Texas.