Trailblazer Energy Center
Project Journal
JUNE ENTRIES
Trailblazer Energy Center Boosted by New Incentives
June 4, 2009
The 81st session of the Texas Legislature produced groundbreaking clean energy legislation, building on progressive legislation passed in 2007 and moving the Tenaska Trailblazer Energy Center near Sweetwater significantly closer to reality.
New legislation will help put into place state and local incentives that, together, continue to structure a practical framework for attracting to Texas investment in large capital-intensive projects such as Trailblazer.
As a plant that will capture and provide for the storage of 85 to 90 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, Trailblazer is eligible for a state grant approved by the Legislature to help fund front-end engineering and design studies and related costs.
New legislation also establishes a framework for regulation of CO2 sequestration and storage between the Railroad Commission of Texas and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Another bill provides for tax incentives for each of up to three carbon-fueled power generating projects that capture and sequester at least 70 percent of their CO2 emissions. Recipients of the tax credits must supply CO2 for enhanced oil recovery, as Trailblazer would. The bill also establishes stringent air emission standards for nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and mercury, all of which Trailblazer, with its highly advanced emissions controls, will meet.
Texas’ leadership in encouraging clean energy is one the reasons Tenaska can consider bringing such a large, pioneering project to West Texas – a project that would provide 1,500 jobs at peak construction, 100 permanent jobs during operation, a 50 percent increase taxable property in Nolan County, and more than 10 million additional barrels of oil annually.
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More information about the Tenaska Trailblazer Energy Center and illustrations for press use may be obtained at www.tenaskatrailblazer.com.
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