Texas Gas Rush: Sugar Land
In May 2024, the City of Sugar Land and its City Council approved a ground lease option agreement with Wärtsilä Development and Financials Services, Inc. for 8 acres of land at 1 Circle Drive in Sugar Land, Texas. The lease was awarded with the developer’s intent to perform feasibility studies to build a natural gas power plant. The plot of land is located within a proposed business park, next to the regional airport, the Cullinan Park Conservancy, protected wetlands, and within a 3-mile radius of over 75,000 residents.
It wasn’t until late May that the news of the proposed plant reached the public through various news articles reporting on the Texas Energy Fund and the Notice of Intent submitted from Imperial Power Plant LLC. The TEF application was for a 148MW natural gas “peaker plant,” but there had been no public involvement in the decision-making process. Shortly after the articles were published, local opposition grew with the “Stop the Sugar Land Gas Plant” Facebook group. The group grew to over 1.1K followers from local Sugar Land HOAs and concerned community members. The New Territory and Telfair HOAs requested public meetings with the City of Sugar Land to address questions and concerns among the residents. Initially, the first scheduled town hall was postponed due to Hurricane Beryl, but hundreds of community members attended when it finally happened. Unfortunately, the meeting was cut short when the Mayor grew tired of answering questions about funding, lack of public involvement, and having no environmental impact study performed, and adjourned the meeting, leaving unanswered questions.
When the TEF funds were awarded in August, the Imperial Power Plant was not selected to receive funding, but this did not halt the project. The City updated its landing page, indicating it would continue looking for public/private investments. The City had committed to attending another town hall in Telfair, which was attended by over 400 individuals. Questions were asked from residents and moderated by members of Telfair HOA, including questions on transparency, proposals of alternative power generation (or the need for power generation in Sugar Land, if at all), and providing emissions data with subsequential concerns. Unfortunately, the city’s mayor cut the meeting short again after a chant broke out in the crowd due to dodged questions.
Concerned residents attended Telfair Community Town Hall at the Sugar Land - Houston Museum of Natural Science. The building reached capacity at 290, with nearly 100 people outside and 74 attendees in the online stream.
Since then, there have been no other commitments from the City of Sugar Land to engage with the public on the proposed plant. Members of the City Council hosted an informal discussion on the proposed bond up for a vote in the November election and were met with more questions on the plant from the public. The City also postponed its presentation with the Fort Bend Historical Commission, which would have been another opportunity for public engagement. That all being said, the City now states on its landing page that they have “a strong interest in meeting with communities throughout the city starting in early 2025” after feasibility studies are completed. No permit applications have been submitted for the project, as no funding has been allocated yet. The local opposition continues to grow, inform, and be present in the community.