Federal Government Intervention Sought In Pipeline Debate

By Stephanie Valle

EL PASO –The federal government may intervene in a plan to build agas pipeline through East ElPaso County.

Residents in and around Clint havetriedto stopPMI Services, a division of Mexicanpetroleum supplier Pemex,from using 14-miles of county and private property to send petroleum to Mexico.

PMI officials told commissioners and east El Paso county residents that they would want the pipeline to start in the Montana Vista area and parallel the already existing pipeline until itreaches the Mexican border.

Now, state Rep. Vicente “Chente” Quintanilla said he willwork to stop the pipeline from being built.Quintanilla’s district encompasses an area where construction would start.

He said he has written a letter toU.S. Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison to disrupt the effort. Quintanilla said an executive order, passed in 1994, mandates oil companies obtain a presidential permit to cross the international boundary, and it’s something he disputes was done.

“It requires a lot of environmental checks and requires that if it’s going to cross through poor minority areas, that they must notify those people and that they have to have a say so,” Quintanilla said.

At present there is no indication on how long the State Department, which issues such presidential permits, will take to evaluate Quintanilla’s petition.