Sugar Land mayor, Finland-based Wartsila working out deal on natural gas power plant at former prison site despite opposition

SUGAR LAND, Texas (KTRK) — The City of Sugar Land says it has the answer to rolling blackouts, but some residents are giving it a thumbs down.

The city wants to build a natural gas power plant on the site of the former Central Unit prison, immediately west of Sugar Land Regional Airport, capable of generating up to 148 megawatts of electricity.

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In May, the city agreed to a temporary lease with the Finnish firm Wartsila to survey the land and determine whether it would be feasible to build a plant there.

“It would actually only operate 30-35% of the time, so it’s not a full-time power plant. Only operates in peak times,” Sugar Land Mayor Joe Zimmerman said.

While the electricity would go to the statewide grid, Zimmerman said his city would get the first rights during blackouts and winter storms.

However, Sugar Land resident Richard Crounse said he and his neighbors would also be getting first rights to the pollution the plant would generate.

“If this plant gets built, you add methane to the atmosphere. You add carbon dioxide,” Crounse claimed.

“Any children that are playing outside for recess – they don’t have a choice what air they’re going to breathe. But it’s up to us to make sure that the air they breathe is clean,” neighbor Anna Lykoudis-Zafiris said.

Zimmerman said those concerns are overblown.

“We’ll comply with all the clean air standards. We’ll comply with whatever the (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) standards are,” the mayor said.

Zimmerman and Wartsila representatives made that case to 100 people at a town hall meeting in New Territory on Wednesday night, but it did little to sway some minds.

“We don’t want this here. So, what is it going to take for the city to listen to us? They shouldn’t have even granted a temporary contract,” Lykoudis-Zafiris said.

If Wartsila determines it can build a power plant at the site, it would have to seek a contract from the city to use the land.

Zimmerman said the plant wouldn’t be built until 2028 at the earliest.

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