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Summit moves to next step
Odessa American - June 5, 2009

Summit moves to next step
BY GEOFF FOLSOM
June 5, 2009 - 4:30PM
Now that a bill that could provide up to $100 million in franchise tax credits to a coal gasification power plant near Odessa is a stroke of Gov. Rick Perry's pen away from passing, officials hope getting funding will be easier.
Earlier this week, a conference committee between Texas House of Representatives and Senate members signed off on a bill that will benefit the first three projects to capture and sequester at least 70 percent of the carbon dioxide they produce. Among the projects that is in line to benefit is a $1.6 billion plant planned for the Odessa area by Summit Power Group, a Bainbridge Island, Wash., company.
Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Perry just received the bill Wednesday and was still wading through hundreds of pieces of legislation.
"As soon as he has time to fully review the bill, he'll take action on it," she said.
Others were expressing confidence.
"We fully expect it to be signed," said Gary Vest, economic development director for the Odessa Chamber of Commerce.
Summit now moves its attention to obtaining a loan for up to 80 percent of the projects cost from the Federal Loan Guarantee Program, which was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Laura Miller, Summit's Texas projects director, said the funding is needed because loans of that size are "impossible" to find on the private equity market with the economy in its current state.
Miller hopes the support from Texas legislators, along with letters sent to U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu from numerous state officials, will be helpful in receiving funding. She hopes to know whether the company will get the loan within the next 30 days.
"We're hopeful that we're on the radar screen," she said.
Miller hopes the support from the legislature will also help with the Public Utility Commission of Texas. The company is still awaiting a ruling on whether clean coal will be given priority with wind power in transmitting energy from competitive renewable energy zones in West Texas to the state's metropolitan areas.
Another issue is where the plant where be built. Vest said the land for the site hadn't been secured. Originally, it was planned for the Penwell site once set aside for FutureGen, a federally funded near-zero emissions coal fired power plant. Odessa was one of four finalists for that project, which was awarded to Mattoon, Ill. in 2007.
Though the Penwell site has the advantage of having already been through environmental studies, Vest said it's not the only one in the area to meet the criteria of having suitable water, sewer and CO2 infrastructure that is accessible to the power grid and rail lines.
"We do have a site that, in my opinion is much, much better than the Penwell site," Vest said.
Vest said he wouldn't disclose where the site is because it could affect its price.
Vest gave credit to State Rep. Tryon Lewis, R-Odessa, and Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, for helping the tax credit bill get through. The bill passed the House 141-5 and unanimously passed the Senate.
"There wasn't a whole lot of stuff that got out of the legislature this session," he said. "There were absolutely no other projects that got franchise tax credits."
Miller praised local officials in Odessa and Midland.
"All during the legislative session, they were calling, they were e-mailing, they were faxing," she said.
If the project gets the go-ahead soon, Vest said construction could start next year and the plant could be online by the end of 2013. Over 1,000 workers would be hired during construction. Once running, the plant would have 150 operators.
Though it's taken much longer to get through than he wanted, Vest said he feels more positive about the project than he did when he first started working on the Summit deal over a year ago.
"When you're talking about spending billions of dollars, everything has to be right," he said.