California’s Loss Is Texas’ Gain … Again

Reinvigorating America’s shipbuilding capacity is a well-known urgent objective of Donald Trump’s second presidency.

One company – drone ship maker Saronic Technologies – initially planned to do its part in that national initiative with a massive $3.2 billion investment in a new port facility and autonomous shipyard planned for Solano County, California, across the bay from San Francisco.

But then reality intervened: Some of the county’s elected officials were indifferent towards the project amid pressure from state officials to aggressively pursue it even though it was publicly known since last year that Saronic was also evaluating the booming Port of Brownsville, Texas, as another potential site.

Vacaville Mayor John Carli was a stout proponent for the project, urging his peers at both the county and state levels to move aggressively and offer fast-track permitting for it, saying “The proposed national shipbuilding initiative aligns perfectly with our county’s rich legacy, deeply rooted in service to our nation, exemplified by the proud history of Mare Island Naval Shipyard.”

Last week, Saronic announced its decision: Its new facility and the 10,000 jobs and estimated $264 billion in economic impact it creates will be located in Brownsville. Thus, California’s loss is Texas’s gain, yet again.

Twenty years ago, Brownsville was a mid-size backwater border city with little going for it in terms of economic development. But that has all changed in recent years, spurred initially by Elon Musk’s decision in 2014 to locate SpaceX’s big private launch facility on the nearby Boca Chica peninsula.

That development along with aggressive planning by leaders in Brownsville and Cameron County have transformed the area into a very real modern boomtown, with much of the economic development centered at the Port of Brownsville.

The press statement released by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office says Saronic chose Texas over California for reasons which have become familiar to those who have followed the evolution of what has become a consistent trend: “Saronic chose Texas for this expansion based on workforce availability, infrastructure readiness, land scale, logistics, and expansion potential.

Saronic will work with the State of Texas, Cameron County, regional technical colleges, and state university systems to develop workforce training and apprenticeship programs designed to sustain long-term industrial growth and position South Texas as a center of excellence for advanced maritime manufacturing.”

These factors, along with Texas’s ability and willingness to cut red tape, have been deciding factors for a stream of recent multi-billion-dollar investments in Brownsville’s future, many of which involve major energy-related businesses.

In 2024, for example, NextDecade broke ground on the first train of its major Rio Grande LNG facility, and is already in the process of expanding the facility to help meet rapidly rising global demand. The full project investment for completing the first three trains involves a planned $25.1 billion capital outlay.

Early this year, America First Refining broke ground on what will become the first major capacity greenfield oil refinery opened in the United States since 1979 at the Port of Brownsville. Once opened – as soon as 2028 – the multi-billion-dollar facility will have capacity to refine 160,000 barrels per day of light, sweet crude produced from the Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian Basin.

So, while Gavin Newsom and his administration’s heavy-handed regulators engage their hyper focus on destroying their state’s once-robust refining sector – killing thousands of jobs and billions in economic growth in the process – Texas just keeps expanding its energy and port economy, with Brownsville reaping much of the benefit.

Governor Newsom enjoys boasting about the fact that California’s economy ranks as the world’s 5th largest economy. But the Golden State’s economy was a global powerhouse long before Newsom ever came along and will likely remain so long after he’s gone despite his efforts to hamper it. In America, markets do still tend to win out over government abuse in the end.

Meanwhile, the Texas economy just keeps advancing under Abbott’s aggressive leadership. Abbott inherited the world’s 12th biggest economy when he assumed the office in 2015 and oversees the world’s 8th largest today. Much of that growth has been driven by the Lone Star State’s consistent ability to win major investments when competing with California. God bless Texas.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.