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A Texas company wants a $20 million sales-tax break to build a massive natural gas-fueled power plant in Juab County.

Dallas-based Panda Energy International proposes to construct the $600 million plant west of Mona.

The power project is an environmentally friendly natural gas fueled electric generating facility. It will produce a maximum of 1,000 megawatts of much needed electricity for the region&emdash;enough to provide more cost effective options for the area's electric utilities.

The facility will be designed and built using state-of-the-art natural gas fueled technology ensuring the highest standards in environmental protection. It will meet or exceed all applicable local, state and federal regulations.

Taylor Cheek, Panda vice-president, told state lawmakers that equipment for the facility would run $300 million to $350 million and without a sales-tax exemption wouldn't be viable.

Panda, one of more than 100 independent and unregulated power producers in the United States, intends to keep most of the electricity in Utah, selling it on the wholesale market to public utilities such as PacifiCorp and the Utah Municipal Power Association, Cheek said.

Panda is a privately held corporation with plants proposed, under construction or in operation in 11 states, China and Nepal.

Panda intends to buy natural gas from Questar and ship it to the site via a pipeline the gas company is proposing to build in central Utah. Curt Burnett, Questar vice-president for public affairs, said the company has told Panda it has the capacity to meet its needs but has not entered into contract talks.