Mucho Trucks..

[SHANEA]

From the Border Hot Line...

Trucks Now?
Dear Editor:

The AP [Associated Press] reported recently that Mexican trucking companies will be allowed to haul freight deeper into the U.S. This pilot program will allow 100 Mexican trucking companies to travel north beyond the current 20 mile limit with the first trucks to travel U.S., highways possibly as soon as 60 days.

This and projected increases in border commerce will yield big economic benefits for our neighbors and good friends to the south in Presidio and Ojinaga.

However, for Marfa, Fort Davis and Alpine, with economies based on tourism, small businesses, education; coupled with the quality of life in this region, the challenges are daunting. Today 49 trucks per day pass through the inland port of entry at Presidio-Ojinaga. Projections for 2010 are 550 trucks per day and for 2020 1,455 trucks, which approaches the current level of 600,000 trucks per year for El Paso-Juarez.

These numbers are staggering when one considers any of the small communities in the area and their ability to handle this large of increase in truck traffic. Tourism and small businesses will suffer. Real estate values will be threatened.

Highway bypasses have been casually discussed for Marfa and Alpine but the Texas Department of Transportation states that it does not build in anticipation of need but only after the need exits. Many enterprising long haul truckers will view the shortest route north to the interstate highway system (or south to Presidio) going through Marfa and Fort
Davis and drive accordingly.

As concerned citizens we need to step-up. On March 13, 2007, the Texas Department of Transportation will hold a Feasibility Study Public Meeting in Alpine at the Alpine High School (loop road; just east of 5th Street) from 6–8 p.m. Please attend and make a difference. This is important.

Steve Elfring
Alpine

[Sotol Vista]

i thought I saw something on the news in Houston a few nights ago talking about the security aspect of this. I guess Mexico does not have a data base of drivers like we do in our DMV system. They were saying anyone could be driving the trucks and they talked about how easy it is to get a fake ID in Mexico.

looks like this could help fuel the need for the Trans Texas Corridor, which I have mixed feelings about

James

[SHANEA]

This proposal is making news across the country...

http://www.etrucker.com/apps/news/article.asp?id=58838

Trucking Headlines  
  Plans for trade corridor concern Texas towns
By Todd Dills

As the proposed implementation of a pilot cross-border trucking program draws near, another international trade corridor project is drawing heat from local residents in Texas.

The March 18 New York Times reported on the reactions of residents of the West Texas towns of Marfa and Alpine to a hearing held by the Texas Department of Transportation on the development of an official trade corridor, La Entrada al Pacifico, or “Gateway to the Pacific.” It would link the port of Topolobampo in Mexico’s Sinaloa state through Chihuahua to the U.S. market, via the border crossing at Presidio, Texas, and the oil cities of Midland and Odessa.

Concerns about increased traffic and pollution dominated criticism from residents, the Times reported, and Marfa Mayor Dave Lanman was quoted as saying, “They have the ability to chip away at it — a little piece here, a little piece there — and they think as the traffic increases the public will get used to it. ... They won’t remember when you’d pass just two or three cars for the 24 miles between Marfa and Alpine.”

Lanman said he thought current lane additions to the highway between Marfa and Alpine signaled the beginning of construction of La Entrada, which was signed into law in 1997 by then-Gov. George W. Bush. The bill designated a 260-mile route for the corridor between Lamesa and Presidio in Texas.

State officials deny any concrete overall plans at this point, though the first leg of the corridor -- a connector routing traffic around Midland, north of Marfa and Alpine -- received federal environmental-impact approval in 2005.

The project is promoted by the Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance, a regional lobby similar in function to the North American Supercorridor Coalition -- the lobby on behalf of the I-35 corridor, often referred as the “NAFTA Superhighway.”

Plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor, two multimodal corridors to parallel I-35 and the future I-69, have been controversial for many reasons, ranging from environmental and trade concerns to not-in-my-backyard protests. The need for greatly expanded highways such as the Trans-Texas Corridor is driven at least partly by increased trade traffic through Mexico from Asia, as well as NAFTA trade.

The Presidio border crossing on the La Entrada corridor sees very little trade traffic in comparison with its busier neighbor, the El Paso crossing. A new highway expansion through to Topolobompo, already under construction in spots on the Mexican side of the border, is likely to increase truck traffic through Presidio. Rail elements of the corridor, a federally designated “high-priority corridor," are also being considered.    

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/03/19/19marfa.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=52

Marfa, Alpine on Mexico truck path
Residents of scenic West Texas towns not happy about La Entrada route.
By Barbara Novovitch
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Monday, March 19, 2007
MARATHON — The idea that in a few years, hundreds of diesel-puffing semi trucks from Mexico could be tooling through two small towns in this area of West Texas every day has upset residents.

The towns are on the route of a projected trade corridor from Mexico called La Entrada al Pacifico. In the proposal's current form, La Entrada would route semis through single-stoplight Marfa, population 2,400, and neighboring Alpine, population 7,000, which has three traffic signals on two one-way streets through town.
Marfa is a travel destination for many in Central Texas and beyond, including East Coast art lovers, because of the famed Chinati Foundation, which houses 100 untitled works in mill aluminum by artist Donald Judd.

At a Texas Department of Transportation hearing in Marathon last week, dozens of residents spoke out against the plan, which state officials insisted was strictly preliminary.

"We own a precious natural resource that is becoming more and more valuable: peace and quiet," said Don Dowdey, chairman of the Big Bend Regional Sierra Club. "Out here, scenery, tranquillity and a rural way of life have attracted people seeking relief from congested cities."

The Entrada proposal, he said, "would ruin the heritage of the Big Bend area's beautiful, wide-open spaces."

Some here, however, doubt that the proposal can be stopped.

"How we behave in the next year could have an impact," Marfa Mayor Dave Lanman said, "but I don't think we're going to stop the corridor."

"They have the ability to chip away at it — a little piece here, a little piece there — and they think as the traffic increases, the public will get used to it," Lanman added. "They won't remember when you'd pass just two or three cars for the 24 miles between Marfa and Alpine."

Lanman said he thinks the current highway construction intended to create more passing lanes between Marfa and Alpine was the start of La Entrada, and he fears that the public hearings, which continue today in Midland and Tuesday in Fort Stockton, are being held to fulfill a legal requirement.

Brian Swindell of HDR Engineering in Dallas, which is conducting a study of the plan for the state, which is expected to be finished by next March, said, "We expect to identify the preferred alternative — it could be rail or roadway — and the supporting information that supports selection of that corridor."

He said that bypass routes or a "do-nothing alternative" could also be considered.

La Entrada al Pacifico was signed into law in 1997 by then-Gov. George W. Bush. The oil cities of Midland and Odessa to the north, through the Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance, have budgeted more than $34 million in state and federal transportation money to promote the route, saying the increase in freight traffic will boost local economies.

By 2010, according to figures cited at a recent alliance conference, 550 trucks are expected to pass daily through Presidio; by 2020, 1,455 trucks. The current average is 49 per day.

Residents of Marfa and Alpine fear that the truck traffic will harm their towns economically because they thrive on tourism.

[BigBendHiker]

Will likely result in some things that no one had thought of.  What is that corollary of Murphy's Law?   (The Law of Unintended Consequences)....


BBH

[SHANEA]

http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18106591&BRD=2288&PAG=461&dept_id=475626&rfi=6

TxDOT debates La Entrada
Bob Campbell<br>Staff Writer
Midland Reporter-Telegram
03/21/2007
A Big Bend group opposed to La Entrada al Pacifico trade corridor aired its differences with leaders of the Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance at the Center for Energy and Economic Diversification Monday night.

Convened by the Texas Department of Transportation and its engineering consultant, the meeting was one of four on the proposed route from Lamesa to Presidio, Ciudad Ojinaga and Ciudad Chihuahua.

TxDOT Planning and Development Director Gary Law of Odessa said Tuesday that participation has been spirited with 40 people gathering in Presidio March 12, 350 in Alpine March 13 and 60 at CEED between Midland and Odessa Monday. The final session was held Tuesday night in Fort Stockton.

More meetings to present options recommended by HDR Engineering of Dallas will be conducted in July and January.

"The Alpine-Marfa group is concerned about retaining the environment and they want to look at utilizing the South Orient Railroad from Presidio to San Angelo," said Law. "MOTRAN individuals spoke considerately of the Big Bend and explained their concerns about developing economic resources for the future of West Texas.

"They want to plan the region's development cooperatively so we don't run into growth problems like they have around Dallas, Austin and San Antonio."

Project Manager Peggy Thurin is gathering information at 17111 Preston Road, Suite 200, in Dallas (75248) and at tpp_leap@dot.state.tx.us.

Midland County Commissioner Robin Donnelly, past chairman of MOTRAN, said representatives of the city of Alpine and Big Bend Regional Sierra Club were able to improve their understanding of La Entrada and its purposes at the meeting.

"They were unaware that any Mexican truck traffic coming into the U.S. at Presidio is 100 percent checked for safety and liability insurance," Donnelly said. "Most shipments go to American truck tractors on the north side of the border because it is more expensive to operate in the U.S."

Donnelly said the Big Bend's political support was enlisted to get the South Orient's needed $100 million upgrading to a higher level with TxDOT, which is presently more concerned with solving rail problems into Dallas, Laredo, Houston and the Houston Ship Channel.

"Alpine has three at-grade, ground level rail crossings and two sub-standard street underpasses, but we have obtained a $1 million grant to study a by-pass around Marfa," he said. "The business community in Chihuahua has had a truck route built around the mountains to Ojinaga because they see this as an opportunity."
©MyWestTexas.com 2007

[SHANEA]

Will likely result in some things that no one had thought of.  What is that corollary of Murphy's Law?   (The Law of Unintended Consequences)....

BBH

Corrollary - haven't heard that in ages.  

1. Mathematics. a proposition that is incidentally proved in proving another proposition.  
2. an immediate consequence or easily drawn conclusion.  
3. a natural consequence or result.  

[SHANEA]

http://www.marfatx.com/uploadedfiles/trucking31507.html

Trucking program will allow
Mexican trucks greater U.S. access
By STERRY BUTCHER

FAR WEST TEXAS - A pilot program that will allow Mexican cargo trucks to travel beyond the 25-mile border zone will commence in about 60 days.

Tractor trailers from Mexico have long been allowed back and forth across the border, but since 1982, Mexican trucks were limited to a narrow strip along the border. In this pilot program, U.S. personnel from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will go into Mexico to inspect and audit the fleets, drivers and files of 100 Mexican trucking companies. After the initial investigation is done, the trucking companies will be allowed to send Mexican trucks beyond the border zone and back.

Details are being worked out for a similar plan to allow U.S. trucks access throughout Mexico.

“This program will make trade with Mexico easier and keep our roads safe at the same time,” Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters said a few weeks ago, when the pilot program was officially announced in El Paso.

The trucking project has been in progress since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993. Proponents of the pilot project hope that it streamlines what has been a clunky trade process at the U.S- Mexico border. As of now, a Mexican truck bearing a load of bicycles, for instance, to Odessa must stop at the border. Its cargo or the trailer is then off-loaded to another vehicle, called a drayage carrier, which ferries the load across the border. The drayage carrier can only travel within the border zone. At some point in that zone, the bicycles are again off-loaded to a U.S. carrier, who takes the load to its destination in Odessa.

“It’s a very convoluted sort of deal,” said Dave Willis, a senior research scientist affiliated with the Texas Transportation Institute.

There’s a big difference between the drayage companies and the trucking companies that will be part of the pilot project. When people envision Mexican trucks, Willis said, they often picture older trucks that are in fact drayage carriers that only ferry cargo a few miles back and forth across the border.

“Drayage companies, they’re the bottom feeders of the industry,” said Willis. “They have the smallest profit margins and the lowest-grade equipment. They’re not representative of Mexican trucking carriers in general. They operate modern equipment in Mexico and the drivers are just as well qualified.”

The pilot program will involve more than 270 federal inspectors and auditors who have been prepared for the job. Trucks are already monitored as they cross into the United States. Customs and Border Protection makes sure the manifest matches the cargo. Department of Transportation officials, either federal or state, do inspections for weight, insurance, licensing and safety factors. The inspectors for the pilot project will conduct pre-authorization checks at the Mexican headquarters of the 100 companies chosen for the year-long plan.

“They’ll do inspections of the vehicles there and audit their files and safety records,” said Ian Grossman, a spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. “We’ll talk to the drivers to make sure they meet U.S. standards before they come across the border. And every time one of their trucks comes across, they will be checked again at the border. At every crossing, the border compounds include Border Patrol, Immigration – we’re one piece of that puzzle doing truck safety inspections.”

Every Mexican truck will be checked every time, said Grossman, for the duration of the project. Mexican trucks can’t carry hazardous materials, and must conform to U.S. safety and emission standards, plus carry appropriate insurance. Drivers must show the ability to communicate in English and they’re subject to the same limitations on driving time and medical fitness as their U.S. colleagues.

Deliveries can be made to any point in the U.S., but once that load is dropped, the trucks must return to Mexico. They may haul a return load to Mexico, but may not make a point-to-point domestic haul before going south again. Once a Mexican truck drops its bicycles in Odessa, for example, it’s got to go back to Mexico; it cannot take a load of cat food to Dallas before going home.

How the program will impact commerce and trucking in the U.S. remains to be seen. Critics have said that the 100 trucking firms will be Mexico’s finest, and won’t be representative of other companies that may have lesser equipment or drivers who aren’t as well qualified. Others have said that the Mexican trucks won’t carry black boxes – devices that can monitor how long a truck has been driving and at what speed. But many U.S. trucks don’t have black boxes either.

“They’re not mandatory at this point,” said Willis. “Some trucking companies have put them on for fleet management. In Europe, all trucks have them.”

It’s also unclear whether the pilot program will result in significantly more truck traffic. Willis indicated that 1,000 trucks were estimated to roll from the 100 companies.

“At least for the pilot period, 1,000 trucks spread across the entire border isn’t much,” he said.

U.S. trucking reps have worried that the pilot program will create an impact on job availability. The drayage companies will likely see a cut in business. Some argue, however, that there’s an industry-wide shortage of drivers.

“There are not enough truck drivers to keep up with the traffic,” observed Benny Matchett, who runs Presidio Freight Forwarding. “That’s part of the problem. As long as the Mexicans are good, safe drivers and have good, safe trucks, there’s not a lot we can do about it.”

And there’s a flip side to the U.S. job issue. Within a few months, U.S. drivers will be able to venture into Mexico and back.

“Part of the demonstration is for U.S. companies to go to Mexico, which they’ve never been able to do,” said Grossman.

Canadian trucks already run back and forth across the northern border, though unlike the pilot program, teams of U.S. inspectors aren’t sent to Canada to look over the fleet and conduct audits.

“We do it for the Mexican-based companies because Congress told us we had to,” Grossman said.

Two panels of monitors will watch the program as it unfolds over the next year, and will evaluate its pros and cons when the pilot project ends.

One panel is made of Mexican and U.S. government officials, while the other is a group of “outside experts” that have yet to be named, said the federal motor carrier spokesman.

“We’ll be making a recommendation as to what needs to be fixed or improved and whether we should – or how we should – continue the program,” Grossman said. “All options will be on the table at the end of the year.”

[SHANEA]

From the Border Hotline...

County judges submit alternate La Entrada plan
Linda Bailey Potter 01.APR.07
ALPINE – With everyone submitting plans to TxDOT during the public input phase for their La Entrada al Pacifico corridor feasibility study, regarding possible increase of commercial traffic from Mexico onto the highways of Texas in the near future, county judges are now having their say.

In a letter dated March 23, signed by four area county judges, an alternate plan was proposed that would take truck traffic from Presidio to Candeleria to Hwy 90 and on to Van Horn. The judges are Brewster County Judge Val Beard, Jeff Davis County Judge George Grubb, Presidio County Judge Jerry Agan, and Culberson County Judge Manuel Molinar.

The plan is one, as stated in the letter, that was formed in 2002 at a meeting in Van Horn with representatives of rural Far West Texas. “This plan remains workable and has widespread support in our region. Unfortunately, our plan has been given virtually no attention by TxDOT, simply because Midland/Odessa would only indirectly benefit from our plan,” the letter states.

The judges are pushing for commercial traffic from Mexico cross at the Port-of- Entry in Presidio, then travel west on FM170 along the Rio Grande to Candeleria, with the road being improved to accommodate commercial truck traffic. Also, that Presidio and Jeff Davis County Roads running northwards from Candeleria and connecting to FM2017 be improved to accommodate such traffic. From FM2017 to the U.S. Highway 90 intersection, should be improved, and then from U.S. 90 north to Van Horn be improved for commercial truck traffic, up through its intersection with Interstate 10.
The judges state that this route would accommodate the potential increase in traffic as well as address environmental, social and economic concerns in Alpine. The letter did not address the problems where trucks would prefer to go east through Alpine.

Concerns that the judges were not included in the loop regarding the La Entrada study, “Ask[ed] that TxDOT take immediate steps to open communications with all of the undersigned rural County Judges.”

[SHANEA]

From the Border Hotline...

Mexican truck traffic increase scare hyped
Linda Bailey Potter 25.MAR.07
ALPINE – The one issue that has come out of TxDOTs La Entrada meetings this past few weeks is what are “we” going to do with all the anticipated increase in Mexican truck traffic. The area of concern of course is the Presidio Port-of-Entry and news that Mexican trucks will be able to travel the United States carta Blanc in less than 60 days.

The numbers “thrown-out” at these meetings have ranged from increases of 500 to 5,000 trucks a day flying through some of the most beautiful real estate in Texas. The thought of such an impact on the environment-including noise, light, and fumes-has TxDOT and local governments concerned as to how to prepare for such increases in truck traffic. For more information on the truck traffic numbers, check out
Many have come out in opposition to any plan except to route the traffic “over there” away from local communities; or, not to let trucks cross at all. However, although TxDOT has said at these meetings that it’s not a done deal, there is no doubt that a plan will be made by March 2008 to accommodate proposed increases in Mexican truck traffic while at the same time protecting the safety of travelers and tourism, which represents a large segment of the economy here on the bend of the Rio Grande. What that plan will be is anyone’s guess, new toll highways, railways, or a combination of the two.

A number of groups have made a comparison of what happened to Laredo in the last ten years in terms of truck traffic, violence across their border at Nuevo Laredo, and large increases in population, to what could happen to Presidio in the near future.

Not everyone is against La Entrada and in Presidio County the City of Presidio and County Commissioners have come out in support of La Entrada.

The Valentine (Jeff Davis County) city council has also voiced their support and would like to have a by-pass around Marfa that would be near Valentine. They have been working on infrastructure for the last several years and are desperate for economic development.

However, looking at the numbers for Presidio, it is difficult to see how increases in truck traffic, and related activity, could compare to what has happened in Laredo.

As the Port-of-Entry numbers reflect (refer to truck traffic schedule), it is true that Laredo has doubled their truck traffic in the last ten years. In 1995 the average number of trucks that crossed daily into the United States was 2,076; by 2006 there were 4,172.
There is not doubt that Laredo has a large number of trucks crossing per day. The actual numbers for 1995 was 747,241 and for 2006 1,501,800. The highest number of trucks that crossed in any one month was March 2006 with 137,752 trucks. However, it should be noted that Laredo doubled their traffic by 1999 and in fact, remained pretty much at that level for the next six years with little variation.

For Presidio, the average daily truck crossings in 1995 were 13 and in 2006 it was 17. There was close to a double in the amount of traffic by 2000 with 24 average daily crossings. The actual number of trucks crossings by year shows that in 1995 there were 4,328 trucks that crossed the border into the United States and in 2006 shows 6,012 of actual trucks crossing. Presidio Port-of-Entry reached its maximum traffic in 2000 with 8,132 trucks that crossed. The highest number of trucks that crossed in any one day in Presidio was 1,082 in November 1999.

Both port-of-entries reflect that an increase in truck traffic reached its greatest numbers around the year 2000 and has varied little from those numbers since. For Presidio to reach anywhere near Laredo numbers a lot of things will have to happen, for instance an increase in economic development on both sides of the border.

There has been those who say that because of the violence in Laredo many trucks will be re-routed to Presidio, and because of the long wait time to cross at El Paso, that also a large number of trucks could be sent to the Presidio crossing.

Before any of this can happen, the highway from Chihuahua City to Presidio will have to be completed, there are segments leaving Chihuahua City and entering Presidio that have not as yet been completed. Before a large number of trucks can be re-routed to Presidio, the highway will have to be competed, which is anticipated to happen this year.

While Presidio will grow in population and economic activity in the near future, to say that it will take on the same growth pattern as that in Laredo could be more hype than reality. Nonetheless, it will take years for TxDOT to complete whatever plan they come up with for La Entrada, or no plan at all. In the mean time, truck traffic will have to be handled with the existing highways.

[SHANEA]

from the Border Hotline

Mexican trucks, La Entrada, and the future
Fran Sage 01.APR.07
After the stunning turnout (about 400) for the La Entrada Feasibility Study last week with the outpouring of community concern and fears expressed by many there, we need to turn to understanding the issue that may still be blurred in people’s minds: the opening up of our borders to long-haul Mexican trucks and its relationship to La Entrada.

Let us keep in mind always that regardless of whether we have a designated La Entrada route approved, the trucks will be coming. Those trucks will be allowed to choose what route they wish to take to whatever market or distribution point they seek. When the Administration worked out an agreement with Mexico for inspections on-site in Mexico (February 22, 2007), a pilot program was immediately announced. About 60 days from then a pilot program will be put in place that will allow trucks from 100 Mexican trucking firms to enter the United States to deliver their goods and return with U. S. goods to Mexico. U. S. trucking firms will likely be allowed to enter Mexico in the future (about six months).

Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington), a long time opponent of the trucks coming, held hearings on March 8, 2007. (See http://murray.senate.gov for her press release—cursor down to the bottom of her “news”, click on “more” then on next 15 articles, etc. and find the one for March 8, 2007.) The article is very informative on NAFTA--North American Free Trade Agreement--and the trucks. While she lists her concerns about safety, adequate numbers of well-trained inspectors, ability to comply with U. S.

Standards, adherence to U. S. Weight Standards, acceptable data on drivers’ safety records, and the backlog of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rules that need to be published for an adequate safety regime to be enforced, the reality is that Congress may have little it can do.

Although it is not beyond possibility that there will be more delay, it is more likely that the year after the pilot program is concluded more trucks will be coming. At any rate, down the line we will have trucks coming our way, like it or not.

So if this is true, will La Entrada make any difference? I think so. Improvement to the roads, bypasses or no bypasses, upgrading of the railroad do relate to how the Mexican goods (maybe even Asian goods) travel through our area. It is likely that the truckers will travel what they consider the quickest route to their destinations.

What La Entrada finds feasible will get the improvements. We need that an alternative route that heads directly north be seriously considered. Whether we have bypasses would depend at least partly upon what the La Entrada study recommends. Obviously, money for creating those bypasses would also be needed. Bypasses, especially in Alpine, will be difficult and fraught with litigation problems.

When it comes to the railroad, La Entrada needs to include it in its study. I find the railroad issue the murkiest issue. I need more insight into why the railroad is not being upgraded faster. Last fall, when I talked to Gil Wilson, multimodal man for TxDOT--that means he looks at other means of transportation than just the highways--he told me that Texas Pacifico Transportation (formerly South Orient Railroad) needs to be able to get lines fixed well enough for trains to get up to 49 miles per hour--optimum speed that would cost $104 million. But he did go on to say that the railroad could do a decent job if trains could travel at 25 miles per hour.

That upgrade has been underway for a long time. What we need to know now is how much more remains to be done and how much it will cost. What needs to happen is that TxDOT makes necessary strategic improvements right away. We all need to understand what is going on. Is it the cost or is there more to the issue than money alone?

Where do we go from here? I expect that organized opposition to just having the trucks come through our towns will be developed in the near future. As that develops we can expect more information and requests for help. One of the key factors to remember is that the trucks will be coming. We need the La Entrada study to recommend adequate improvements to alternative routes.

[SHANEA]

http://tinyurl.com/24j4f8

La Entrada planners fault opponents' 'scare tactics'
Bob Campbell<br>Staff Writer
Midland Reporter-Telegram
04/09/2007
Emotional -- and some proponents say misleading -- opposition from the Big Bend region to La Entrada al Pacifico trade corridor has prompted backers to launch a campaign publicizing the plan's benefits.

With hard-hitting environmental groups just having scuttled TXU Electric's plans to build eight new coal-fired plants in Colorado City and elsewhere in Texas, they want to avoid having La Entrada suffer a similar fate, they say.

Meaning "The Entrance to the Pacific," the Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance-sponsored corridor envisages a four-lane highway south from Lubbock all the way to the Mexican seaport of Topolobampo.

In the meantime, Mexico has opened a new road from Ciudad Chihuahua to Ciudad Ojinaga across from Presidio and a growing number of Mexican trucks are transferring cargo to American trucks at the border. They head north on U.S. 67 and 385 through Marfa, Alpine, Fort Stockton and McCamey to I-20, Midland and Highway 349-U.S. 87 to Lamesa and Lubbock.

MOTRAN President James Beauchamp said Friday that the Big Bend Sierra Club and its supporters are trying to stop the plan with these falsehoods, among others:

That numerous Midlanders will profit and "are spending millions" to promote the project;

That the pristine environments of Marfa and Alpine will be destroyed by "thousands" of trucks rumbling through their downtown areas;

That the commercial traffic will threaten the Big Bend's populace and bucolic lifestyle by "carrying in disease and drugs."


"If you read a lot of things coming out, particularly with the Alpine group, there are tremendous inaccuracies," Beauchamp said. "They've accused us of spending millions lobbying and if you look at MOTRAN since its inception 14 years ago, I don't think you could add up $1 million or even get close.


"If these wild, outlandish statements don't get countered, people will assume there must be something to them. Folks in the Big Bend Sierra Club are in opposition to the heater project in Andrews County and they don't like FutureGen.

"They also didn't want us to build Lake Ivie (part of Midland's water supply system southeast of Ballinger) some years ago and I have a low tolerance for them."

He said MOTRAN has already helped the Texas Department of Transportation get a $1 million-plus federal grant to study Marfa and Alpine by-passes.

"We're not nearly as heavy handed as they make us out to be," said Beauchamp, adding that Waco economist Ray Perryman projects a peak of only 200 trucks a day through the Big Bend. "We have never gone in and forced local communities to do things."

Beauchamp and Midland Chamber of Commerce President John Breier are circulating a statement listing reasons to justify La Entrada and asking supporters to sign and fax it to MOTRAN at (432) 563-1288 or mail it to TxDOT engineer Peggy Thurin at 17111 Preston Rd., Suite 200, Dallas 75248-1232.

Presidio County Judge Jerry Agan of Marfa conceded his area's naysayers are employing "scare tactics," but he said Marfa anticipates a southeastern by-pass and has a different stake than Alpine.

"Sure, James doesn't have millions," Agan said. "We look at it a little differently than Alpine. It's nice to say 'no trucks!' when you have a university and plenty of jobs and doctors, but the people in Presidio County don't feel that way. We have 22 percent unemployment in Presidio."

The judge said there is a steady flow of commercial traffic now through Alpine, 25 miles east of Marfa in Brewster County, and he met 17 westbound trucks on U.S. 90 from there during the 80-minute drive from Van Horn to Marfa one afternoon last week.

"There are already a lot of trucks coming through Alpine, but it's 'Stop La Entrada!' Agan said. "Why aren't they concerned about the westbound trucks to San Antonio?"

Past MOTRAN Chairman Robin Donnelly, a Midland County commissioner, said Alpine La Entrada-haters "are ignoring the reality of their situation.

"It's a NIMY thing -- not in my backyard," he said. "They ignore all those hydroponic farms shipping tomatoes out of there and they may need improvements in traffic and congestion."

Donnelly said trade from Mexico will inexorably grow regardless of the corridor's fate. "It's pure fiction that everybody in Midland is going to get rich from La Entrada and the trucks from Mexico will carry disease and drugs," he said.

"You can't stop it unless you fence off downtown Alpine and have them go someplace else. It's not like we're trying to go down there and change up their whole lifestyle. We're trying to make a positive impact on the future."

La Entrada and Mr. Beauchamp
Mr. Beachamp you probably can't find Marfa or Alpine on the map. Most of your statements are also unfounded. There is probably over 100 trucks moving down Highway 67 now. Indications from orthers are it will increase to 200. If you believe this I believe your are crazy. This is one of the most idiotic projects ever devised by TxDot. Why? Because the spending of $1.5 Billion alone JUST FOR THE FEASABILITY study would be more than enough to repair the South Orient Railroad and set up an Intemodal service that we see everyday on Union Pacific and others. Guess what? That would eliminate Odessa and Midland from the equation. Also Marfa and Alpine. FOLKS USE YOUR HEADS. I hope that the Sierra Club keeps up there pressure. We don't need the noise and the pollution here. I cannot see the value for Marfa or Alpine. Truck Stops? Wow. You must remember that Marfa is about 2,100 people and Alpine 5,000 or so. You already have your trucks via IH-20 and we don't want them here. STAY AWAY.
Kerr Mitchell (Rancher - Hwy 67), Marfa, Texas (where else)

Alpine is united
It is misleading of Motran to try to point the finger at the Sierra Club "and its supporters" and "hard -hitting environmental groups" as the source of opposition to their La Entrada plans. This is one issue that the vast majority of ALL people in Alpine agree on.
Pam Gaddis, Alpine, TX

[SHANEA]

No Surprise....

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2okvey

04/15/2007
Craddick, Alpine lawmaker differ on La Entrada's future
Bob Campbell<br>Staff Writer
Midland Reporter-Telegram

Like trucks barreling opposite ways in the same lane, Speaker of the Texas House Tom Craddick of Midland and state Rep.
Pete Gallego of Alpine appear on a collision course on the proposed La Entrada al Pacifico route from Presidio-Ojinaga to Lubbock and Amarillo.

That's because they co-sponsored the original bill, signed by then-Gov. George W. Bush in a photo featured on the Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance's Web site. But Gallego wants to change it now that the Big Bend Regional Sierra Club and many of his District 74 constituents are fighting it -- a move strenuously opposed by Craddick.

"In 1997, Rep. Gallego and I co-authored legislation designating La Entrada al Pacifico as a State of Texas Trade Corridor," the speaker said.

"The proposed route will make needed improvements to roads throughout West Texas and commerce and tourism will only be benefitted by these improvements. The route for La Entrada al Pacifico has not changed since 1997 and I support the proposed route."

Soliciting comments for the Texas Department of Transportation, the Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance (MOTRAN) wants to run commercial traffic north on the widened U.S. 67 and 385 through Marfa, Alpine, Fort Stockton and McCamey to I-20 and Midland, Texas 349 and U.S. 87 to Lubbock and Amarillo.

Gallego said Thursday the emphasis should now be switched from the road to the South Orient line operated by Texas Pacifico, a Mexican railroad company, from Presidio to Brownwood and Dallas.

Told MOTRAN projects $70-$80 million in renovations for the line to be usable, Gallego said, "That's a lot of money, yes, but it would be a long-term commitment not requiring the constant upgrading a highway does.

"The state has bonded more and more projects and there is no reason why we couldn't bond that. People not only in Alpine but also in Marfa, Marathon and Fort Davis are pretty concerned about increased truck traffic in the area. It's a quality of life thing.

"From the beginning, it was my understanding TxDOT planned loops around Alpine and Marfa. Several times along the way, they had plans to do feasibility studies and for one reason or another, those were put off."

When asked if he is concerned that Big Bend environmentalists are mischaracterizing Midland's involvement, Gallego said, "It is controversial, sure.

"People are passionate and rightfully so. It's always gratifying for me as an elected official to see people concerned and involved in issues that impact them. I'm opposed to the way we're doing it now.

"The kinds of things we said we were doing in the beginning, loops and upgrading railroad infrastructure for shipping by rail in addition to the highway, are what the lawyer in me would call conditions precedent for my support."

Conceding Presidio and Fort Stockton support La Entrada as currently planned, Gallego said, "Alpine and Marfa have got to have something to help them maintain their quality of life so we can make it a win-win situation for all the communities and the Permian Basin."

Craddick is a Republican and Gallego a Democrat.

State Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, representing Midland and Odessa, had been following the conflict and said it should be possible to reconcile the Basin's industrial concerns with Big Bend tourism.

"The simple fact is that this type of economic development is not inconsistent with tourism because transportation benefits all forms of growth," Seliger said. "If there were to be a staggering increase of traffic in Alpine, there would be a need for diversion and that's fine.

"If this won't work for them, they'll try litigation and that is an available avenue under the law. They'll do what they need to do, but my support is for La Entrada and good, rational growth strategies. The problems that come with growth are a lot better to deal with than problems from the opposite."

Seliger said MOTRAN and the Midland and Odessa Chambers of Commerce worked hard for 12 years to develop funding comparable to the older Ports to Plains corridor through Big Spring and finally gain national priority corridor status two years ago.

Big Bend La Entrada opponents have published newspaper advertisements and made public statements that MOTRAN "is spending millions on lobbyists" to promote the corridor, which they say would enrich numerous Midlanders, bring "thousands of trucks" per day through Alpine and "spread disease and drugs" from Mexico.

"There is nothing delicate about dealing with TxDOT," Seliger said. "Alpine is a challenge, too. Everybody has a stake in growth and those concerns are not incompatible."

Big Bend Regional Sierra Club Chairman Don Dowdy of Alpine told the Reporter-Telegram on Wednesday that neither club leaders nor any of its members have made false statements about the Basin.

"Like in any place, some people are more extreme than others," he said. "There are some people whose basic attitude is, 'No trucks at all!' We are very concerned about the effects on the environment, economy and tourism of this area. A large number of trucks going down the current route would be a serious detriment to those."

Dowdy is lobbying to re-route La Entrada north from Presidio on Farm to Market 170 to Candelaria and north-northeast across as-yet uncut land to Lobo in Culberson County, near U.S. 90 and Van Horn, and Texas 54 north to U.S. 180 and New Mexico, he said.  SHANEA COMMENT:  Bet those people over around Candelaria, etc. would just "love" to have those trucks over there... Of course, it could be an economic boom for them, but I doubt they want it.

Dowby conceded La Entrada would not bring thousands of trucks per day through Alpine but said some estimates are of at least 400.

"One of the problems is that the world has changed a lot in the last 15 years," he said. "We don't think La Entrada is going to do much for economic development in the Big Bend."

He said the Big Bend Regional Sierra Club is not formally opposed to putting Future

[SHANEA]

http://tinyurl.com/35pvjj

Printed from http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2554
July 27, 2007 — Features
If We Build It, Will They Come?
West Texas residents fight to halt the proposed La Entrada al Pacifico
by Sterry Butcher


The talk in West Texas this summer is La Entrada al Pacнfico, and it’s either a great opportunity to develop an international trade route, or it’s a wretched plan that would ruin the pristine and unique qualities of the Big Bend. There’s not much sentiment in between.

Both sides hope a study by the Texas Department of Transportation will clarify La Entrada’s short- and long-term impacts. At the crux of the issue are three questions: Are the trucks coming, and if they are, how many, and when?

La Entrada’s pitch goes like this. Cargo ships from Asia and overflow ship traffic from Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Seattle will put in at a deepwater port in Topolobampo, Sinaloa, on Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. From there, merchandise will be loaded onto trucks and railcars and transported across the vertiginous Sierra Nevada and Copper Canyon, through Chihuahua City eastward until it crosses into the U.S. at Presidio. Then the trucks will rumble up U.S. Highway 67, through Shafter ghost town and by Chinati Peak. Past Donald Judd’s concrete boxes outside Marfa, the trucks will hang a right at the town’s single, blinking red light and head for Alpine, where they’ll duck under a low train overpass and chug straight through downtown. A few miles out of town, it’s a left turn to Fort Stockton, then on to McCamey before turning onto U.S. 385 to Midland and Odessa.

The Midland-Odessa area is known for oil rather than commercial shipping or distribution. La Entrada promoters have set out to change that. The notion of the Entrada corridor was born in the mid-1990s, when the price of crude was generally less than $20 a barrel and the Permian Basin’s oil-driven economy wasn’t as bullish as today. Launched by a group called the Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance, or MOTRAN, and members of Chihuahua state’s economic development department, La Entrada promised to lift northern Mexico and the Permian Basin out of economic doldrums, and diversify business and job opportunities.

Midland-Odessa may be 800 miles from the Pacific Ocean, but folks from the Permian Basin dream big. “We originally started looking at an extension of I-27 from Lubbock to Midland-Odessa,” says Charles Perry, MOTRAN’s founder and a current director. “It helped to anchor it with a route on into Mexico, because at that time, NAFTA had just passed, and there was a push for better connections to Mexico. The more we looked at it, the more it really made good sense.”

Over the years, MOTRAN has successfully lobbied for state and federal funding to improve highway infrastructure around the basin; some of the roads are linked to Entrada’s route for commercial traffic. And they’re proud of the support they’ve had at home: MOTRAN’s website prominently features a photo of then-governor George W. Bush, a Midlander, signing legislation naming La Entrada an official state corridor back in 1997. Bush was in office—this time in the White House—when La Entrada won its 2005 federal designation as a “high priority corridor” on the national highway system. The group helped push for federal designation of the route. Little green signs that read “La Entrada al Pacнfico” dot sections of the highway.

Big Bend residents have kept a collective eye on La Entrada for years, especially because of Mexico’s progress with its road upgrades. Mexico, it seemed, was eager to advance. A new bypass was engineered and built around the steep, winding Peguis mountain range between Chihuahua City and the border town of Ojinaga. Economic development and transportation officials from Sinaloa and Chihuahua told Texas transportation officials about specific plans for the Entrada route through their states. Many of those improvements still have a long, long way to go before they’re completed, but dire predictions started appearing in West Texas about the anticipated increase in truck traffic on La Entrada. Freight traffic at the Presidio port of entry has risen in the last decade from 2,897 crossings in 1996 to 6,616 last year. Those numbers don’t offer an accurate window into how future traffic may evolve. Traffic projections for Entrada so far are wildly variable.

“There have been published figures that go from 25 trucks a day both ways to 4,000 a day,” says Don Dowdey, president of the very active Big Bend chapter of the Sierra Club. “People tell me they’ve seen 5,000 a day published.”

A 2006 report by Texas Transportation Institute researcher William Frawley strikes Dowdey as more accurate than others he’s seen. Frawley calculates that 35 to 292 trucks going both ways per day would be diverted to the Presidio port within about five years.

“He went to Chihuahua and talked to shippers there about what they’d be shipping,” Dowdey says. “It’s the only study I’ve seen based on real data. And that’s still a very large gap.”

The route’s multiple logistical problems make it hard to answer the “if, how many, and when” questions. The port at Topolobampo needs significant improvement—maybe two years of work that hasn’t yet begun, says a Chihuahua official. It must be deepened to handle really large commercial ships, and no port management firm has signed on to oversee the facility. There’s no highway built yet that could sustain semitrucks carrying goods across the Sierra Nevada. The tunnels for rail traffic through Copper Canyon are too low to double-stack container cars, and the grade is too steep in places for long trains. Commercial traffic is processed by customs and border-protection personnel from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., weekdays only, at Presidio’s international bridge. A plan to allow Mexican trucks and drivers into the U.S.—and U.S. drivers into Mexico—is still pending. La Entrada’s original proposal calls for a four-lane highway through communities now served only by two lanes. Those little towns, like Marfa and Alpine, are ill-equipped for a tremendous increase in traffic volume, and construction of more lanes or bypasses would be years away.

That’s what makes the current TxDOT study, the first comprehensive look at the route, so important. MOTRAN lobbied for the $1 million in federal funds that were eventually set aside for the study; the state kicked in another $600,000.

“What we’re looking at is determining the feasibility of a four-lane, divided highway between Midland-Odessa and Presidio,” says Peggy Thurin, statewide planning coordinator for TxDOT. “We’ll be looking at the nationally designated La Entrada route and also other potential routes that the public has identified and our data have identified.”

Then there’s the awfulness factor. The Big Bend is wide and empty and isolated and severe, and that’s why people like it. The city of Presidio could use the economic boost additional truck trade could bring, but locals in the rest of the area worry that traffic from a four-lane highway would spoil the country, blacken the air, and thwart tourists who come by the thousands. There’s more state parkland in Brewster and Presidio counties than in all the rest of the state, say conservationists. Big Bend National Park alone is 801,000 acres.

“We’re a place you can come to and get away,” says Fran Sage, a Sierra Club member from Brewster County. “For us, La Entrada would be the destruction of one of the last places you can go to live or visit and have a satisfying experience with other people and the land. Once you run trucks through this area, it will never be the same again. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Dowdey adds: “To say this is a special area and needs saving is not a radical idea at all.”

The TxDOT study began last fall, and by this spring, it was time to hold public meetings. The audience at Alpine’s meeting on March 13 was 400-strong. The school auditorium was too small to hold everyone, and the crowd spilled onto the sidewalk. Asked for a show of those in favor of La Entrada, one soul, a trucking operator from Presidio, raised his hand. There were passionate speeches and strong feelings. About 40 people spoke, bringing up concerns that ranged from health issues to the safety of Mexican trucks to the desire for peace and quiet. Some thought the route benefited Midland-Odessa at the expense of the Big Bend.

“It grieves me that our state leaders would sacrifice this region for a few people in Midland,” says Bill Addington, an activist and Sierra Blanca resident.

Many at the Alpine meeting also attended similar gatherings in Fort Stockton and Midland.

“I was a little surprised at the number of people who were at the Alpine meeting,” Thurin says. “I think it’s great. What the whole process is about is to talk to folks—and they were willing to talk.”

To tackle issues involved in the trade route, the consulting firm working on the study with TxDOT is meeting this summer with small groups of stakeholders to focus on La Entrada. A second round of public meetings will be held in late August or early September. A third round occurs around the first of next year. The research involves traffic models, current traffic, and a forecast of traffic in 20 to 30 years, information gleaned in part from discussions with the Mexican side of the Entrada equation. The study will be complete in spring 2008.

“Generally, at the end of the feasibility study, the results are turned over to district engineers,” Thurin says. “If we find a four-lane, divided highway isn’t feasible, but that we may see quite a bit of traffic, say around Marfa, one of our recommendations may be to look at a relief route. From that point, the districts would still need route-location studies to pinpoint exactly where the route would go and find funding. It’s not like at the end of the study we’d be throwing down pavement immediately.”

She assured the Alpine crowd this spring that the study would have no foregone conclusions.

“This is not a done deal,” she says. “A lot of people assume that because there’s a designated corridor, that we’re going through the motions. That’s not what we’re doing, I promise. We’re giving a good, unbiased eye to the corridor and seeing what we find.”

Thurin had never visited the Big Bend before the Entrada study. “It’s beautiful out there,” she says. “I can appreciate people wanting to protect it. But if you have a lot of trucks that are really coming, it’s better to prepare to address those should that be the case.”

But are they coming? Big Bend residents aren’t waiting for solid numbers and traffic forecasts to tell TxDOT what they think of the Entrada corridor. They’ve responded to the study and its call for public comment with zeal. A blog called Stopthetrucks.org is now online. The group Stewards of the Big Bend has organized. Letter-writing campaigns have been carried out. Cafй workers wear “Stop La Entrada” shirts. Petitions about La Entrada circulate at Marfa’s weekly farmer’s market. Homemade “Stop La Entrada” signs have popped up.

Despite the percolating anti-Entrada vibe in the Big Bend, Perry remains a staunch booster. Commercial traffic, he says, is like water—it will seek the path of least resistance. He believes truckers will look to Presidio to escape the snarled port at El Paso.

“Some locals don’t want it,” he says. “I try to tell them, whether this traffic comes is not my decision. Realistically, this route is easier than going through El Paso. We should get ready for what we think is coming in the future and not wait until someone is strangling with traffic. Let’s get the bypasses built first so we don’t disrupt the local communities. A truck is not going to be diverted by a T-shirt or a sign in the yard.”

Alternate routes have been floated at area commissioners’ court meetings, though some don’t seem too viable. One follows the Rio Grande through Candelaria and then up to Van Horn. Parts of it are difficult without a high-clearance vehicle, but the trucks would skip Marfa and Alpine entirely that way. Another would send trucks west from Marfa to Jeff Davis County, where they’d be shunted toward Interstate 10 at Kent on a section of a lovely, winding road known as the “Scenic Loop.” The absolute shortest route from Presidio to I-10 goes through downtown Marfa and Fort Davis. It doesn’t seem like there’s a good alternative out there.

Unless you start thinking rail. It’s possible that hundreds of trucks could be taken off the roads if their cargo containers were put on rail at Presidio. TxDOT owns the South Orient rail line from Presidio to San Angelo, and it’s leased to a Mexican company called Texas-Pacнfico. Here, too, are multiple problems: The track is decrepit in many places, and the speed on much of the line tops out at 10 mph. It would take many millions to get rail running, but according to one Chihuahua state official, rail is how the cargo will come—if it comes.

“The road is not complete; there’s still 250 kilometers to do on the road,” says Armando Correa, an engineer for the Chihuahua state office of industrial development. “The highway at this moment is not possible because the Mexican government has no money to finance it. It’s all mountain, it’s too expensive, and we need the money for more uses than that road. The plan is to do it by rail. The railroad can only pull 20 cars; the most it can run is two runs per day, 40 cars. And we still have problems because the port has to be redone. We have a long way to go.”

Correa points out that for Chihuahua, the goal of the Entrada corridor isn’t simply to funnel goods to the U.S. “That’s not the purpose of the corridor,” he says. “If that were to be the case, there’d be no gain; we’d only see a train go by, and that would not give us any work. The purpose is to improve the conditions of the mountain region, which is very poor.”

Once the shipping trade from Topolobampo gets going, he says, much of the merchandise would stay with Chihuahuan maquiladoras or be carried on to Juarez.

“Later on, maybe three, four, or five years, then some of the merchandise will go to Dallas,” Correa adds.

While the Entrada corridor is being parsed here, some lively port planning is going on elsewhere. Government officials in Baja, California, this summer announced plans to open bids later this year for construction and development of a $9 billion “megaport” at Punta Colonet, south of Ensenada. The 6,200-acre megaport, which includes a rail component, will be adjacent to Baja’s modern, transpeninsular highway that zips straight to San Diego two hours to the north. Promoters say it will be larger than the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports combined, handling 6 million to 8 million container units annually. Other Pacific port developments are ongoing at Lбzaro Cбrdenas and Manzanillo.

Perry is undaunted by the specter of competition. He maintains there’s room for everyone.

“Topolobampo is a long-term deal,” he says. “The ports at Long Beach and L.A. are going to continue to handle the traffic they can. With Topolobampo, we’re talking years in the future, when they can no longer handle the traffic.”

Still, the improvements needed at Topolobampo, the other ports in development, building the transmountain highway, constructing extra lanes or bypasses around Marfa and Alpine, pouring money into rail upgrades to the South Orient—taken piece by piece, the logistics and cost of La Entrada seem nearly insurmountable, like maybe it won’t happen.

“It will,” Perry says. “When we started this, I said it would not happen in my lifetime. I’m 77, and it’s not going to happen in my lifetime. We felt like this is a 40-year project, and it probably is. Over the next several years, we’ll see steadily increasing traffic counts. As the congestion increases in the major areas like El Paso, then everybody is going to look for alternate routes to avoid that congestion. How do you stop it?”

Sterry Butcher is a journalist with the Big Bend Sentinel in Marfa.
What did you think?

Please share your thoughts and opinions about this article by sending an e-mail to editors@texasobserver.org.

[SHANEA]

At first I thought I was reading the National Enquirer...  Conspiracy theory going mainstream...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5064512.html

Perry's push for super highway raises conspiracy buzz
Some say it's part of a plan to create one nation in North America

By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — Black helicopters, the Illuminati, Gov. Rick Perry and the Trans-Texas Corridor are all now part of the vernacular of the global domination conspiracy theorists.

Perry's push for the Trans-Texas Corridor super highway is part of a secret plan, the conspiracy theorists say, to create the North American Union — a single nation consisting of Canada, Mexico and the United States with a currency called the Amero.

Government denials of the North American Union and descriptions of it as a myth seem to add fuel to the fire. A Google search for "North American Union" and "Rick Perry" returns about 13,400 Web page results.

"Conspiracy theories abound, and some people have an awful lot of time on their hands to come up with such far-fetched notions," said Perry spokesman Robert Black.

Perry enhanced the conspiracy buzz earlier this summer by traveling to Turkey to attend the secretive Bilderberg conference, which conspiracy theorists believe is a cabal of international monied interests and power brokers pressing for globalization.

And the conspiracy rhetoric is likely to ratchet up this week as President Bush meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Quebec in their third summit to discuss North American relations under the Security and Prosperity Partnership.

"There is absolutely a connection with all of it," said Texas Eagle Forum President Cathie Adams. The Trans-Texas Corridor "is something not being driven by the people of Texas."

The first, and most controversial, leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor plan is a proposed 1,200-foot-wide private toll road to run from Laredo to the Oklahoma border parallel to Interstate 35. This TTC-35 would be built by a consortium headed by Spanish owned Cintra S.A. and Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio.

The seed of the North American Union controversy rests in the 1992-93 passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Under that treaty, Interstate 35 was designated informally as the NAFTA highway.

'Stealth' attempt
Fast-forward to March 2005 to Crawford, when President Bush, Harper and then-Mexican President Vicente Fox agreed to pursue the Security and Prosperity Partnership, SPP. The idea was to promote cooperation among the countries on economic and security issues.

But conservative author Jerome Corsi — in his new book: The Late Great U.S.A.: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada — argues the SPP is a "stealth" attempt to wipe out the nations' borders and form a single economy like the European Union.

With an entire chapter dedicated to Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor plan, Corsi says the first step to integrating the economies is to integrate the transportation infrastructure.

"His (Perry's) actions have been to fight hard to build this toll road and not listen to the objections expressed by the people of Texas," Corsi said.

Corsi became nationally known in 2004 as the co-author of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry. Corsi said extensive research shows the SPP has created working groups on the North American Union that answer to presidential Cabinet secretaries.

"This is more of a shadow bureaucracy, a shadow government already in effect," Corsi said. "Unless it is stopped, it will turn into a North American Union with an Amero."

The official federal Web site for the SPP has a section dedicated to busting the North American Union as myth.

"The SPP does not attempt to modify our sovereignty or currency or change the American system of government designed by our Founding Fathers," the site says.

But that has not stopped a growing opposition to the North American Union by groups such as the Eagle Forum, The Conservative Caucus and the John Birch Society.

'Wanted' individual
The North American Union also has been fodder for cable television commentators: CNN's Lou Dobbs and Fox's Bill O'Reilly.

Perry fueled his role in the debate in June by attending the Bilderberg annual conference, a secretive closed-door meeting of about 120 business, government and media leaders from Europe and North America.

Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Lake Jackson was asked about the trip on the syndicated talk radio show of Alex Jones in June. Paul said the trip was "a sign that he's involved in the international conspiracy."

Jones' Web site features mug shot-like photos of Perry labeled "Wanted for Treason." Jones in an interview said Perry's trip and the Trans-Texas Corridor show a willingness by the governor to sell out Texas' infrastructure to international bankers.

"Perry is actively waging war, economically in the interests of the elites and neomercantilism," Jones said.

The 2001 book Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New by Robert A. Pastor, an American University professor and director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management, is cited by Corsi as the blueprint for the merger.

"I've never proposed a North American Union," Pastor said. "The only people who talk about a North American Union are those people who are trying to generate fear."

Belief in sovereignty
Pastor said greater cooperation between the three countries makes sense for both economics and internal security.

Pastor said those promoting the conspiracy are doing so because of "historical xenophobia," "a fear of immigrants, mostly from Mexico" and a "traditional isolationism."

Black said there is no way the governor would support merging the U.S. with its neighbors.

"The governor is a firm believer in the sovereignty of the United States. Too many of our brave men and women have died defending it," Black said.

r.g.ratcliffe@chron.com

[SHANEA]

Not in My Big Bend Backyard