Hobbs: I want to see 50, 80, percent of LNG construction jobs going to Valley workers

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - The executive director of Workforce Solutions Cameron says he is working to get far more construction workers from the Rio Grande Valley hired for the big LNG project at the Port of Brownsville.In an exclusive interview with the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service, Pat Hobbs acknowledged that the minimum local talent Bechtel must hire for the building phase of NextDecade’s $18.4 billion liquefied natural gas export terminal is a minimum 35 percent. “Maybe we can hit 50 percent, 80 percent,” Hobbs said.More than 5,000 workers are expected to be needed for the construction phase of the project. Construction could take five or six years. Hobbs predicted frenetic activity as Bechtel, the company NextDecade has hired to build Rio Grande LNG, gets moving on the project. “It’s gonna be a fury between now and the time they actually start. Now that they have that final investment decision things are gonna start popping. They’ll start having job fairs and we'll help them with those, just to see what we can pull out of the woodwork.”Hobbs said he hopes to persuade Bechtel to post all the job openings on the WSC website. Editor's Note: Go to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service to read the full story.Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.