NuCoastal Gets Permit By Charlyn Finn | 08-Sep-2007
By CHARLYN FINN - The water quality permit for the Point Comfort NuCoastal power plant has been approved. “Indeed I have it here,” Roy Hart of NuCoastal said Wednesday morning when he confirmed Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has given a favorable nod on the plant’s water quality permit.
Terry Clawson, media director for TCEQ, said the permit was issued on Aug. 20. “The applicant (Port Authority) and protestants reached a settlement and there was no one left to protest,” he said. “The permit was in hearing but the settlement caused it to be remanded back to TCEQ. Being no further protests, the permit was issued.”
The Calhoun County Port Authority applied to TCEQ for the permit since the Port Authority is leasing the plant site to NuCoastal.
The Port Authority purchased in July 2004 the mothballed E.S. Joslin power plant and the land it sits on for $50,000. After a special meeting Board Chairman Randy Boyd read a resolution in open session authorizing the purchase of the old power plant and approximately 170 acres of land. The 169.96-acre tract and buildings, adjacent to the Port of Port Lavaca/Point Comfort deep-draft harbor, doubled the amount of available property the Port Authority had to offer shippers and receivers.
The Port Authority bought the property from Sempra Energy and Carlyle/Riverstone. The facility, during its prime in the 1970s, was valued as high as $50 million.
The Port Authority recently extended an option to buy from NuCoastal for another 12 months for $1.4 million.
“Last week we received the payment,” said Interim Port Director Charles Hausmann, also the finance director, was happy to announce the 2008 budget has been positively amended by $1.4 million.
“We have been waiting for this (the permit approval),” Hausmann said. “Now we will be going forward with the permit agreement.”
Hart also said he was happy about the permit approval and looks forward to the development of the project.
“We have begun discussion about the plant with the Port Authority,” Hart said. “We will develop the document to buy the plant for $15 million.”
NuCoastal Power Company is currently building a 300-megawatt plant in Victoria.
“And, now, we will build another 300 megawatt plant in Point Comfort,” Hart said. “We will be selling in the electric market to a group called Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). We will be making a major $300 million investment in the power plant. We are working on the finances needed to move forward on the development of the plant.”
Hart estimates the plant will be completed in 2012 but construction should begin in May 2008. At peak construction he says there will be 600 workers on the job site.
“We are discussing contracting bids out,” Hart said. “We do not have bids advertised yet.”
In August, a precedent-setting agreement was announced by Hart which paved the way for the permitting of the 303-megawatt Point Comfort NuCoastal power plant.
According to Hart, the environmental organization Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition, Public Citizen and the NuCoastal Power Corporation “forged the agreement for the plant, which would burn petroleum coke as fuel and would be located at the site of the old Ennis Joslin power plant in Point Comfort.”
“This appears to be the first time any power plant in the nation has agreed to offset all its mercury emissions and the first time a plant in Texas has agreed to offset its carbon dioxide emissions,” Hart said. “The agreement ends opposition to the company’s request for a plant permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.”
The state agency had approved a draft permit, for the power plant, but the SEED Coalition had contested.
When NuCoastal and environmental groups arrived at the agreement, TCEQ was able to move forward on the permit approval.
Point Comfort NuCoastal will re-fire the power plant, originally built by Central Power and Light Co.
Under the terms of the environmental agreement, NuCoastal will offset 100 percent of its mercury reductions. NuCoastal agreed to an 80 percent reduction of mercury emissions at the plant, from 70 pounds per year to 14 pounds, and will lower that amount if mercury-control technology performs as expected. The remaining emissions would be offset by purchasing mercury emissions credits, a commitment that may be the first in the nation.
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