Naked City

Contrary to what the Chronicle reported in "Off the Desk" last week, no business interest other than Longhorn Pipeline has applied for a permit to move gasoline from Houston to El Paso. It was therefore incorrect to say that "one of the groups opposing Longhorn's permit accepted contributions from business interests attempting to get a permit for an alternate Houston-to-El Paso gasoline pipeline."

However, the Navajo Refinery of Artesia, New Mexico, which supplies 15-20% of the gasoline market in El Paso, is opposing Longhorn's proposed gasoline pipeline, which would run through South Austin residential neighborhoods and across the Edwards Aquifer and the Pedernales River. Navajo instigated the lawsuit that attempts to stop the Longhorn pipeline. The suit, filed in federal court in Austin, was later joined by the city of Austin, Lower Colorado River Authority, and the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District.

The PIPE Coalition, a local organization opposing the pipeline, has received money from a PR firm that represents Navajo's parent company, Holly Corp. And Navajo has hired former Texas Land Commissioner Garry Mauro and others to represent them. But no other pipeline company has contributed to Austin environmental groups fighting the Longhorn pipeline, because there is no other pipeline company.

That's all good reporting, and we wish we had done it. Instead, it was done by local political consultant Mike Blizzard, who informed us that we got a portion of our story wrong last week. The Chronicle regrets the error.