West Texas ranchers and landowners are up in arms over plans to build a natural gas pipeline through pristine lands of the state's Big Bend region.
The San Antonio Express-News reports that a consortium of two companies owned by billionaire businessmen has won a $767 million contract to build a 143-mile pipeline through mostly private ranch land.
The pipeline would deliver up to 1.4 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas from the Permian Basin for Mexican Federal Electricity Commission's power generation and industrial use.
The pipeline would run south between Alpine and Marfa toward Presidio, and connect with a large pipeline on the Mexican side near Ojinaga.
There currently are no energy transmission pipelines in the Big Bend region, or any oil or gas production.
