HOUSTON — In response to the Surface Transportation Board’s handling a proposed rail line in Bayport, U.S. Rep. Gene Green will introduce a bill late this month designed to more accurately assess the board’s projects, reports the Pasadena (Tex.) Citizen. Public hearings were held Tuesday and Wednesday to allow residents to address the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed 12.8-mile San Jacinto Rail line. The rail line has been sought to provide competitive rail service. “Our bill will require that local public concerns be taken into greater consideration than in the past and require the STB to use a higher standard in addressing public comments when a proposal is in a residential area,” Green said. “There is overwhelming public opposition to this project, but yet the STB has done nothing but move forward in an expedited manner.”
The legislation includes provisions to ensure that when there is a high level of opposition to a project, concerns of both residents and public officials are taken into greater consideration than in the past. It requires that before a final decision is made on a project, the STB determines whether a proposed project would have a disproportionate impact on a minority or economically disadvantaged area, and if it does affect an area determined to be as such, the STB would be mandated to report to the public what alternatives were considered and why they were not chosen.
“The San Jacinto Rail project has received a very high number of public comments, the great majority in opposition,” Green said. “The STB has not yet prepared a public report for the San Jacinto Rail project detailing how it adversely affects the low-income minority areas of the East End and other neighborhoods.”
Green noted the STB has the authority to deny projects because they target minority or low-income areas through an executive order, but a bill would leave no doubt that the STB has the power to request alternative plans for projects, he said.
“It seems like the regulation may not have much strength,” he said.
Additionally, the bill would require the STB to investigate potentially false information provided about projects. During the investigation, the decision process would be put on hold, and if the board found that the false information was provided intentionally, the application would be automatically denied.
“This is pretty standard. If you give the wrong information when you apply for a driver’s license, they don’t have to give you one,” Green said.
Green said he has not yet sought co-sponsors, but said he intends to approach Transportation Committee members, and also Democratic Reps. Nick Lampson and Chris Bell, and Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, all of whom represent a portion of the potentially affected area. Lampson’s spokesman Peter Tyler voiced the congressman’s concern over potentially adverse affects to a primarily minority area during a public hearing on Tuesday.
“We urge the STB to reinitiate the review process,” he said.