Monday: Ask Bastrop County to demand a full public TCEQ review
Monday at 9:00 a.m.: Ask Bastrop County to call for a public, whole-site TCEQ review of Pacifico Air Registration 185019 / Project 413471. Get the meeting details, three-minute script, yard-sign pickup information, event recap, and town-hall slides below.
A month of organizing has changed the landscape.
Volunteers have filled town halls and kept Pacifico under public scrutiny. Pacifico has now withdrawn its local tax-incentive applications—but the proposed 710-megawatt power plant and TCEQ Air Registration 185019 remain active.
Thank you to Representative Stan Gerdes for responding. His August 21 letter asks TCEQ to hold a public meeting for Registration 185019 and explain the regulatory basis and review supporting Pacifico's use of the electric-generating-unit standard-permit process. That is a meaningful step toward public participation and transparency.
Pacifico's public statement did not explain why it withdrew the applications. Gerdes's letter requests a public meeting and an explanation of standard-permit eligibility; it does not ask TCEQ to deny or pause the registration or make a major-source determination.
Your calls are reaching Senator Schwertner's staff.
A resident reports that staff in all three Schwertner offices acknowledged high call volume. The resident says a Bryan-office staffer added, “We have received lots of calls. We have been in touch with TCEQ.” Lost Pines Watch has not independently verified the nature or timing of that contact. Keep calling.
Bastrop County Commissioners Court · Item 8
Item 8 is a resolution declaring statutory limits on county authority, outlining environmental risks from unregulated large-scale industrial projects, and petitioning the Texas Legislature for expanded county powers. Commissioner Butch Carmack sponsored the item. The County has posted the four-page agenda, but not the proposed resolution text, so residents cannot yet verify its exact provisions.
Complete a Public Participation Form for Item 8 and give it to the County Clerk before the item is discussed. The Court's rules allow up to three minutes per speaker and cap total comment on one item at 30 minutes. If more than ten people seek to speak on an item, the rules say only ten will be recognized. Bring a printed copy of your remarks and ask the Clerk to retain it with the meeting materials.
Use Item 8—and, if necessary, a properly posted special meeting.
Bastrop County cannot decide Pacifico's air registration, but it can use the County's public voice to request a complete, transparent TCEQ determination before approval.
Strengthen Item 8
If County counsel concludes the posted notice permits it, add the focused TCEQ language below before adopting the resolution.
Post a special meeting if needed
If the Court will not add the language—or counsel says it cannot be added under Monday's notice—schedule the earliest legally permissible special meeting to consider a Pacifico-specific resolution.
Before the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality takes action on Pacifico CCK Energy 1 LLC's Air NSR Registration 185019 / Project 413471, Bastrop County requests that the agency publish a written whole-site determination addressing aggregation of all related turbines, generators, and facilities; sitewide potential emissions; the enforceability of all proposed operating-hour or emissions limits; and eligibility under 30 TAC §§116.610(b) and (c). If the complete project constitutes or may constitute a major source, the County requests that TCEQ require the applicable case-by-case major-source permitting process and every public-notice and participation opportunity required by law.
This language asks TCEQ to make and publish the legally relevant whole-site determination. It does not ask the County to declare a permit result that only the environmental agencies can decide.
A three-minute public-comment script
Add your name, where you live, and one truthful sentence about why this project matters to you. Speak slowly; the version below is designed to fit within the Court's limit.
Hello, my name is __________, and I live in __________.
Over the past month, Bastrop County residents have filled town halls and asked for a transparent public process around Pacifico's proposed project. Pacifico has now withdrawn its local tax-incentive applications, but its proposed 710-megawatt natural-gas power plant and TCEQ Air Registration 185019 / Project 413471 remain active.
We have heard repeatedly that the County's direct regulatory authority is limited. Item 8 recognizes those limits and asks the Legislature for more authority. But TCEQ has authority today.
Pacifico is seeking an expedited Electric Generating Unit Standard Permit. That route may proceed without the ordinary site-specific public notice and participation associated with a case-by-case major-source permit, and the complete registration is still not public.
I am asking the Court—if County counsel says Monday's posted notice permits it—to amend Item 8 and request that TCEQ evaluate the complete Pacifico facility as one source, publish its sitewide potential-emissions and aggregation findings, verify that any operating limits are legally enforceable, and require the applicable major-source process if the whole project meets or may meet those thresholds.
If that language cannot be added Monday, please post a special meeting at the earliest legally permissible date to consider a focused resolution. Please use the County's voice now so residents have a meaningful opportunity to know, be heard, and protect their community. Thank you.
Email the County Judge's office and all four commissioners tonight, by midnight August 23rd, then ask a neighbor who is attending to place the request in the public record.
Yard signs · more available
A limited supply (25) of yard signs will be available at the Earth Native Wilderness School office starting Monday afternoon. Use the Shiloh Road entrance. Signs are $10 each to reimburse the volunteer-funded printing cost. This batch is first come, first served; more signs and pickup locations are coming soon.
Earth Native office · 921 Shiloh Rd · get directionsChildren of the Forest drew a strong local turnout
Saturday's kid-led Children of the Forest March and Rally brought children, families, and neighbors together from Fisherman's Park to Bastrop City Hall and back. Thank you to the young organizers, families, volunteers, and everyone who showed up for the community and the forest school beside the proposed Pacifico site.
Download the August 20 town-hall slide deck
The 19-page PDF is the presentation shown at the community town hall. It is posted so attendees can review slides that were difficult to see in the room and share the source-backed briefing with neighbors.
Event-credit clarification: the deck's original cover retains the “LIV Pacifico Town Hall” event label used at the time. The August 20 meeting itself was independently organized and put on by volunteer community members; it was not put on by LIV.
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