Plug Pulled on Controversial Sugar Land Methane Peaker Plant
New methane-burning power plants, the preferred grid stabilization strategy of state leaders, are dealt another defeat
SUGAR LAND, Texas – The City of Sugar Land in Fort Bend County announced late Wednesday it had abandoned plans to build a “peaker” methane-burning power plant that faced fierce opposition from community members and environmental advocates.
In the wake of the February 2021 power outages during Winter Storm Uri, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and other state lawmakers have thrown their support behind the taxpayer-financed construction of methane-burning plants to stabilize the grid by increasing generating capacity. The Texas Energy Fund (TEF) they created offers low-interest loans and grants to build new plants. In the years since Uri, no new methane power plants have been constructed and projects approved for TEF funding are years away from generating their first megawatt of electricity. Two TEF-approved projects have already backed out of the TEF, casting doubt on whether those plants will ever be built and if the program can deliver what state leaders promised.
“The costly, harmful insistence on building new generating capacity that also happens to benefit Texas’ powerful fossil fuels interests isn’t just failing; it can’t even get going,” said Haley Schulz, a Public Citizen organizer and Fort Bend County resident. “Supply chain issues, environmental concerns and community health are among the obstacles new gas plants face. Forecasts of huge load growth by the end of the decade mean time is not on Texas’ side. The latest gas plant proposal failure in Sugar Land is a reminder that lawmakers have ignored other, better strategies. Energy efficiency, demand response, and solar energy are better options than throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at methane gas.”
The Sugar Land project had sought TEF funds and was rejected, but city officials had left open the possibility of pursuing the project without TEF funding.
“After learning about Sugar Land’s cancellation of the gas power plant project, this community let out a sigh of relief,” said Anna Lykoudis-Zafiris, a Sugar Land resident who helped organize opposition to the plant. “There is hope that this is the end of the matter, but a loss of trust has led many of us to fear that the city will try to find another project for the abandoned proposal’s site. There are other towns in Texas facing a similar situation, and we ask that they take note of how a community can rally together to fight back against proposed gas plants and polluting facilities that should never be near where someone calls home.”
ENGIE notified the state this week that it withdrew from the TEF for its proposed plant in Corpus Christi. In early January, Howard Power Generation made a similar announcement for its Javelina Power Plant proposal in Corpus Christi.