By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Juab County Commissioners went on record as supporting
the construction of a 1,100-megawatt power plant, even with
a proposed tax break.
A Texas corporation is seeking a $20 million sales-tax
break to build a giant natural gas-fueled power plant in
Juab County.
"We would almost kill to get the plant built here in
Juab County," said Robert Steele, commissioner. "We think it
is a good deal for our county that would create jobs and
would be a definite shot in the arm for our economy."
Steele said the three Juab County Commissioners had
attended several meetings at which Panda representatives
presented their plan to construct the power plant.
"We have had several talks with them," he said. "We
hardly dare believe that the proposal is true and that it
could actually happen."
Dallas-based Panda Energy International, one of more
than 100 independent and unregulated power producers in the
United States, is proposing to construct a $600 million
plant west of Mona.
Panda vice president, Taylor Cheek, told state
lawmakers that equipment for the 1,100-megawatt facility
would cost between $300 million to $350 million and Panda
will have to go into debt for 60 percent of the Mona
project.
"We were told that without a sales-tax exemption the
plant most likely wouldn't be possible," said Joseph
Bernini, commissioner.
Panda 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.
The 1,100 megawatts produced at Mona could power more
than 1 million homes.
"We have been told that natural gas would be a
clean-burning fuel that would not create an air-quality
problem for the residents of our county," said Wm. Boyd
Howarth, commission chair.
Cheek said Panda's gas-fueled plants produce a
fraction of the emissions of coal-fired facilities. There is
a coal-fired 1,680 megawatt electricity generator at
Intermountain Power Project near Delta. The emissions there
are scrubbed before the cleaned air is released into the
atmosphere.
Air quality will be one of the issues the corporation
will need to assure as part of the permitting.
It will take approximately 16 months to obtain needed
government permits to build the plant and another 18 months
for actual construction. During the construction stage,
1,000 workers would be employed. When the plant is
completed, 50 workers would be employed.
Of course, said Howarth, the plan has not been
presented to the public yet. One of the many needed
procedures which would have to be completed before
construction could begin would be an EIS.
"There will be some, I am certain, who will object to
the proposal."
State lawmakers will, most likely, consider the tax
break during a special session of the Legislature in
October. The plant could bolster the state's education
budget and could provided extra tax dollars with fewer than
200 students added to the school system.
In general, the House Republican caucus supports the
concept of a tax break which could be interpreted as an
extension of the current manufacturing tax exemption.
GOP senators have been a bit more skeptical.
"Darin Peterson, State Representative for District 67,
has been instrumental in working to help us on this
project," said Steele.
"We are excited about the prospect and hope it comes
to pass," said Steele.
Panda is a privately held corporation with plants
proposed, under construction, or in operation in 11 states,
China and Nepal. Those facilities total 16,300 megawatts of
capacity.
The power company has a goal of expanding to 26,000
megawatts over the next five years.
Because of the large amounts of capital required to
build power plants, Panda secures permits and completes
other reconstruction site development on some projects. It
then brings in a larger partner to put up most of the equity
for construction costs in return for a bigger share of the
profits.
The corporation 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. The company
has told Panda it has the capacity to meet its needs.
Contract talks have not started.
|
