Among Other Corporate Tax Breaks That Survived in 2010: $4 Million for Greenhouse Gas Polluter

The Governor displays, once again, her Olympia-itis…in no way does this exemption make sense because its purpose was to encourage the continued mining and use of Washington coal at the plant. Now that the mine is closed and the coal is being imported (think of the CO2!!!) from Montana or Wymoing, there is no benefit to Washington…it's just shipping $4 million out of state.

She's trying to maintain the $4 million as a bargaining chip…seems amateurish, and does little to encourage a reasonable timetable for closing this extraordinarily dirty plant. Her staff needs to get of Olympia.

I wonder if the tax break is a legacy from when the plant and mine were owned by mainly local utilities prior to it being sold in 2000 to Transalta. There was a big uproar about it being sold back then because shortly after electricity rates increased dramatically due to the whole Enron thing.

I guess more interesting would be to find out if Transalta sells the electricity at the coal plant to local utilities (it probably does), which ending the tax break would in essence end up costing rate payers more to make up for the loss. I understand the desire to end the tax break for environmental reasons, but any gain to the state budget would be offset by higher electrical rates.

Is this the same coal plant that is transitioning to natural gas?

There was one that was going to keep an exemption to help defer costs of switching over. Might have been another one, or that bill died, or it doesn't make as big of a headline.

I looked it up, I picked the letter off the 46th LD facebook page, Sierra Club sent a letter to the Gov bitching about how long it will take Transalta to get completely off coal, 2025.
Does cutting off the exemption make that transition happen faster, or not?

Maybe the cashhelps them transition sooner, maybe it doesn't and is a give away. It would be a good idea to know which it is.

Somebody

I'm not sure if it is considered a “transition” or just that they already had all the infrastructure in place to handle additional generation capacity for a gas plant and that the coal plant would eventually need to be shut down. If it is planned for 2025 and it was built in the 70s that would put it at about 50 to 55 years old, which is exactly the same time frame in which another Transalta coal plant was recently closed (54 years old). And, since they don't use the coal mine next to it, it would probably not make financial since to replace it another coal-fired plant as they are doing with the recently closed one in Canada.

http://www.kelaam.com/pages/archived_news?Trans…

You mentioned that the tax break was merely to “encourage the continued mining and use of Washington Coal” however, if you would have done your homework before spouting off on a blog, you would have realized that prior to the mine shutting down, TransAlta shipped in about 50% of its coal from Wyoming. The tax incentive was partially for the employment of the employees in Washington and mostly for the retrofit of the two units.

Prior to the retrofit, the units were emitting approximately 3000ppm SO2. Now currently, and this is live data, they are emitting 16ppm SO2 total, even though they are permitted to emit 100ppm per unit.

You also mentioned “think of the CO2″. well think about this.

Did you know that every vehicle in WA, OR, and ID produce approximately 600lbs of pollutants per year on average. When you think about it there are over 9.6 million cars in those three states equaling aprox. 5.76 trillion pounds of pollutants per year. That kind of dwarfs the power plants emissions of aprox 262 thousand pounds per year or 0.004 percent of that number, to provide power to those three states.

So Sireea clubs statement of the Centralia plant being the single largest source of pollution is misleading.

My advice to you and your “Green” friends…do your homework before having an opinion. Don’t just go with whatever is popular!!!!

No it is not a legacy from CMC owning the plant prior to 2000. TransAlta reached this agreement with the state prior to spending over 500mil on the scrubber retrofit.

TransAlta is not replacing the coal plant in Wabamun if that is what you are referring to. It is currently being decommissioned. If you are thinking of Keephills-3, that is just an expansion of the current Keephills site.

We should be putting the Boiler Maker Union members to work as Wind Turbine Techicians… or solar techs… and Close down the TransAlta Coal plant in Centralia! I can't Believe we're PAYING $4mill – $5mill Per Year for the Dirtiest Pollution Creator in The State of Washington!! And they are listed as one of the Dirtiest Coal Plant in the USA!
TransAlta earns approx $2 Billion – $3 Billion per Year… they'd still earn Huge Profits without the annual tax exemption!

We should be putting the Boiler Maker Union members to work as Wind Turbine Techicians… or solar techs… and Close down the TransAlta Coal plant in Centralia! I can't Believe we're PAYING $4mill – $5mill Per Year for the Dirtiest Pollution Creator in The State of Washington!! And they are listed as one of the Dirtiest Coal Plant in the USA!
TransAlta earns approx $2 Billion – $3 Billion per Year… they'd still earn Huge Profits without the annual tax exemption!

Bull Shit. Cite your source for “they are listed as one of the Dirtiest Coal Plant in the USA!”

Rageman;

TransAlta Coal Plant in Centralia is Ranked the 13th highest emitter of CO2 out of 50 coal plants in the U.S.

Coal Plants Are Disgustingly Dirty and Devastating to human health and the Environment in its entirety.
You wanted a reference; so here you Go! http://www.dirtykilowatts.org/Dirty_Kilowatts20…

Go directly to the study. (Pg. #6) “Dirty Kilowatts” July 2007 by; EIP (Environmental Intregrity Project) “is a Non-profit, Non-partisan
organization dedicated to the enforcement of environmental laws and the prevention of political interference of those laws”.

Table 1. Top 50 Dirtiest Power Plants for CO2

By Emission Rate – lbs CO2/MWh (2006)
Rank Facility Name Facility Owner State CO2 (Tons)
CO2
Rank
(Tons)
Net
Generation
(MWh)
Emission
Rates
1 Reid Gardner Nevada Power NV 5,166,573.18 152 2,899,640.00 3,563.60
2 Sherburne Northern States MN 18,003,647.95 13 12,872,776.00 2,797.17
3 Warrick Alcoa IN 6,092,055.94 133 4,457,515.00 2,733.39
4 Wabash River PSI Energy Inc IN 5,708,663.78 140 4,250,856.00 2,685.89
5 Dave Johnston PacifiCorp WY 7,708,347.93 102 5,776,835.00 2,668.71
6 San Miguel San Miguel TX 3,901,767.83 198 2,937,194.00 2,656.80
7 Coal Creek Great River ND 11,094,477.64 50 8,403,311.00 2,640.50
8 Weston Wisconsin Public WI 4,421,567.29 180 3,415,522.00 2,589.10
9 Elmer Smith Owensboro KY 2,846,614.59 253 2,205,772.00 2,581.06
10 Eddystone Exelon PA 3,720,279.47 209 2,886,159.00 2,578.01
11 Coyote Otter Tail ND 3,658,089.28 211 2,844,480.00 2,572.06
12 Lawrence Westar Energy KS 4,181,451.56 188 3,257,371.00 2,567.38
13 Centralia TransAlta WA 7,974,563.74 94 6,214,950.00 2,566.25
14 Springerville Tucson Electric AZ 7,373,041.51 107 5,801,431.00 2,541.80
15 F B Culley S. Indiana Gas IN 2,946,368.23 248 2,326,502.00 2,532.87
16 Pulliam Wisconsin Public WI 2,988,738.14 246 2,362,947.00 2,529.67
17 Sandow TXU Generation TX 4,901,916.53 159 3,878,580.00 2,527.69
18 R D Morrow S. Mississippi El Pwr MS 3,328,669.06 227 2,636,912.00 2,524.67
19 J T Deely San Antonio TX 6,915,214.35 116 5,502,734.00 2,513.37
20 Coleman Western KY KY 3,404,056.90 225 2,712,034.00 2,510.33
21 Big Bend Tampa Electric FL 11,760,766.40 45 9,422,708.00 2,496.26
22 Havana Dynegy Midwest IL 3,018,603.20 244 2,427,926.00 2,486.57
23 Elrama Orion Power PA 2,671,697.98 264 2,151,894.00 2,483.11
24 Grand River Grand River Dam OK 7,625,549.35 105 6,151,201.00 2,479.37
25 Huntley Power NRG Huntley NY 3,301,283.04 228 2,666,529.00 2,476.09
26 Colstrip PP&L Montana MT 18,240,485.45 12 14,764,749.00 2,470.82
27 Charles Lowman Alabama Electric AL 4,730,394.10 165 3,834,124.00 2,467.52
28 Leland Olds Basin Electric ND 4,808,205.20 163 3,904,544.00 2,462.88
29 Big Brown TXU TX 10,942,645.32 55 8,911,676.00 2,455.80
30 Red Hills Choctaw MS 3,921,216.15 197 3,201,074.00 2,449.94
31 R M Schahfer Northern Indiana IN 11,850,737.46 44 9,675,831.00 2,449.55
32 Bay Shore FirstEnergy OH 5,393,977.32 147 4,407,217.00 2,447.79
33 Antelope Valley Basin Electric ND 8,696,067.31 81 7,106,993.00 2,447.19
34 Bailly Northern Indiana IN 2,622,285.45 268 2,144,456.00 2,445.64
35 J R Whiting Consumers MI 2,905,548.93 250 2,378,504.00 2,443.17
36 Montrose Kansas City MO 3,803,833.46 205 3,114,207.00 2,442.89
37 Monticello TXU TX 18,268,348.39 11 14,961,282.00 2,442.08
38 Wyodak PacifiCorp WY 2,872,883.11 252 2,353,507.00 2,441.36
39 Apache Station Arizona Electric AZ 3,452,791.33 222 2,843,773.00 2,428.32
40 Hayden Pb Service of Colorado CO 4,252,581.02 186 3,502,621.00 2,428.23
41 Pleasant Prairie Wisconsin WI 9,078,101.87 75 7,523,070.00 2,413.40
42 Milton R Young Minnkota Power ND 5,862,979.09 136 4,861,874.00 2,411.82
43 Powerton MW Generations IL 9,140,630.61 71 7,642,897.00 2,391.93
44 Martin Lake TXU TX 21,301,393.26 5 17,821,177.00 2,390.57
45 Presque Isle Wisconsin Electric MI 3,984,921.53 194 3,334,963.00 2,389.78
46 Laramie River Basin Electric WY 15,248,625.94 25 12,777,567.00 2,386.78
47 Ottumwa Interstate Power IA 4,714,087.93 166 3,952,075.00 2,385.63
48 Big Stone Otter Tail SD 3,784,491.54 207 3,174,012.00 2,384.67
49 Edgewater
(4050) Wisconsin Power WI 5,103,545.06 154 4,281,210.00 2,384.16
50 Gerald
Gentleman Nebraska Public NE 11,192,809.15 48 9,422,664.00 2,375.72
Total 340,887,590.85
tons 272,359,846

Teri.

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So… Are you a BoilerMaker member Rageman ????

BTW; PG&E has announced they will be closing their Boardman Coal plant (East of Portland) and probably replacing it with a biomass plant of some sort. Oregon like Washington only has one coal plant.

PG&E's website confirms my statement.

Rageman – Your name says it all. Your rage is clouding both your logic and perspective. The sales and use tax exemption was intended to subsidize the mining of coal here in Washington, regardless of where the balance of the coal came from. I really don't get what your quibble is – other than to have one, perhaps???

Further, what is it about “Single largest source of coal” that you don't understand? If your point is that cars, collectively pollute more than Transalta, well, you're right. But that's no mystery you've unearthed, you know. Nor is it the point. The SINGLE LARGEST SOURCE OF CO2 in the state is TransAlta. Got it? We're trying to take car of auto emissions, too, but TransAlta is a pretty big fish.

Come to grips: coal is the technology of the Industrial Revolution. We cannot afford its pollution or the danger it poses to both public and worker health.

Rageman

Join !!! We need people like you –Thanks

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