Milk That Cow
06-23-2009, 08:54 PM
Can someone explain in laymen's terms, why Rockdale doesn't have these great facilities(not withstanding the new school) like Tatum?
Because both have huge coal plants....
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/062309dnbuscoal.39802fd.html
SMALL SCHOOL DISTRICTS' FINANCES RIDE ON GREENHOUSE GAS LEGISLATION
6-22-09
TATUM, Texas – The high school sports coliseum in this tiny East Texas town is the house that coal built.
Steam flows from Luminant's Martin Lake Steam Electric Station. The plant provided $14.6 million in taxes to the Tatum school district last year. The large 3-year-old gym with a soaring ceiling and theater-style seats looks like it belongs on a college campus. Yet the Tatum High School Eagles only recently advanced to 3A competition.
Across the parking lot is the artificial-turf football field with a hospitality suite. The next pasture over is the site for the new indoor football practice facility.
All of this, along with the science labs, a drill team practice room decorated with pink boas and a cafeteria that's more inviting than some restaurants in town, was paid for by taxes from Luminant's nearby coal-fired power plant, the Martin Lake Steam Electric Station.
"We spend a little more money per kid than other people do," said Tatum Independent School District Superintendent Dee Hartt, a Beaumont native with an understated manner.
A bill to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, making its way through Congress, could threaten Tatum's riches. The legislation would require coal-fired power plants to pay to pollute.
That could squeeze plants' profit and maybe even push owners to operate the plants at lower levels.
Congress is considering a cap-and-trade scheme to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The government would set a specific emissions cap, then issue only enough tradable allowances to sustain that cap. Martin Lake and other facilities could meet the regulations by cutting their emissions or by buying allowances.
The program would hit coal-fired power plants hard because they generate more carbon dioxide, a chief greenhouse gas, than other types of plants.
"Coal is a target – it's a serious target – because that's where the carbon is," said Kevin Hassett, director of economic policy studies for the American Enterprise Institute, in a presentation to the Dallas Regional Chamber.
And since Texas deregulated its electricity industry, coal plants no longer have the ability to directly pass the costs along to consumers.
In Texas' competitive market, the most expensive plant operating at any given time sets the wholesale price for everybody. That's almost always a natural gas plant, because natural gas costs more than other types of fuel.
Coal is cheap, and coal plants tend to operate constantly, giving plant owners a fat margin compared with the wholesale rate. This arrangement has made a lot of money for Luminant and, in turn, the Tatum ISD.
Since the Legislature voted to deregulate the electricity industry in 1999, the taxable value of the Martin Lake plant has more than quadrupled to $1.7 billion, making Tatum a wealthy district. The company paid the school district $14.6 million in taxes last year.
Charles Rush, a manager for valuation consulting firm Pritchard & Abbott and the man who assesses the value of the Martin Lake plant for Rusk County, said deregulation required appraisers to value each of Luminant's assets individually, boosting their values.
Cut the profit expectations for Martin Lake, and Rush might have to reduce the taxable value, wiping out revenue for Tatum schools.
Setting a market price on greenhouse gas emissions could be the trigger. Coal emits about twice as much carbon dioxide as natural gas, making coal emissions twice as costly.
If carbon allowances become too expensive, or natural gas prices drop, coal profits would shrink.
Further, the proposed regulations are designed to encourage developers to build more renewable power plants, such as wind turbines, which could displace coal on the power grid.
"The bigger threat to the megawatt hours of the coal plant actually comes out of the renewable space," said Kevin Howell, president of NRG Energy's Texas operations. "On weekends, we see coal plants get cycled down."
Squeezing coal profits could affect communities like Tatum across the state that depend on the plant revenue, while potentially boosting tax revenue to those towns that get new, low-carbon nuclear reactors or wind farms. The result could be a shift in wealth among rural school districts.
The Glen Rose Independent School District, which encompasses Luminant's Comanche Peak nuclear plant, collected $23.2 million in taxes from the company in 2008. That's nearly twice as much as the Tatum ISD received. If Luminant builds two more reactors at the nuclear plant, as planned, the Glen Rose school tax revenue will surely rise.
Howell and his coal-operating brethren want a climate change bill that turns up the heat gradually. That would give NRG time to build nuclear reactors, which don't emit carbon dioxide while operating, or to develop technology to abate carbon dioxide emissions from coal.
Coal companies, including NRG, Luminant and Luminant's parent, Energy Future Holdings, are pressuring Washington, and winning some concessions.
Politicians from coal-heavy states have added provisions to the climate change bill to ease the burden on coal plants. The bill would grant merchant plants – coal plants owned by private companies – some emission allowances for free. Those allowances could cover up to half of the merchant plant emissions.
"What Congress has decided to do is buy off the coal people by giving them permits," said Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute.
During a speech to the Dallas Regional Chamber, he said: "Some of the people who are the worst culprits for producing carbon ... are getting the biggest handouts."
Each merchant coal plant would receive allocations based on the greenhouse gases it emitted from 2006 to 2008. That means plants that begin operating after 2008 – such as Luminant's two plants under construction and one recently completed – wouldn't get any free allowances.
Luminant, the largest power company in Texas, made 66 percent of its electricity last year with coal. The company owns 10 coal units and is building two more.
Those coal plants employ nearly 800 full-time employees and about 289 contractors. Last year, Luminant paid $118 million in county, school and city taxes.
The Martin Lake plant employs 285 people full time and around 130 contractors. Workers mark their plant anniversaries with stickers on their hardhats. The average tenure is about 25 years. The plant has given a city of mostly low-income families a school district so wealthy that it has to share some revenue with the state.
"Just through our property tax dollars, the school has been able to pay off bonds a lot sooner than they could have," said Superintendent Hartt, who's become an expert on wealthy school district financing. Other districts sometimes call, seeking his advice.
For some blue-collar families, the coal taxes provide their children a bridge to a white-collar life.
The Tatum alumni association raises money each year for the school. Hartt has declined the money and asked the group to give scholarships instead.
So every graduating senior in the class of 111 gets about $2,000 for college. Every single one.
Because both have huge coal plants....
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/062309dnbuscoal.39802fd.html
SMALL SCHOOL DISTRICTS' FINANCES RIDE ON GREENHOUSE GAS LEGISLATION
6-22-09
TATUM, Texas – The high school sports coliseum in this tiny East Texas town is the house that coal built.
Steam flows from Luminant's Martin Lake Steam Electric Station. The plant provided $14.6 million in taxes to the Tatum school district last year. The large 3-year-old gym with a soaring ceiling and theater-style seats looks like it belongs on a college campus. Yet the Tatum High School Eagles only recently advanced to 3A competition.
Across the parking lot is the artificial-turf football field with a hospitality suite. The next pasture over is the site for the new indoor football practice facility.
All of this, along with the science labs, a drill team practice room decorated with pink boas and a cafeteria that's more inviting than some restaurants in town, was paid for by taxes from Luminant's nearby coal-fired power plant, the Martin Lake Steam Electric Station.
"We spend a little more money per kid than other people do," said Tatum Independent School District Superintendent Dee Hartt, a Beaumont native with an understated manner.
A bill to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, making its way through Congress, could threaten Tatum's riches. The legislation would require coal-fired power plants to pay to pollute.
That could squeeze plants' profit and maybe even push owners to operate the plants at lower levels.
Congress is considering a cap-and-trade scheme to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The government would set a specific emissions cap, then issue only enough tradable allowances to sustain that cap. Martin Lake and other facilities could meet the regulations by cutting their emissions or by buying allowances.
The program would hit coal-fired power plants hard because they generate more carbon dioxide, a chief greenhouse gas, than other types of plants.
"Coal is a target – it's a serious target – because that's where the carbon is," said Kevin Hassett, director of economic policy studies for the American Enterprise Institute, in a presentation to the Dallas Regional Chamber.
And since Texas deregulated its electricity industry, coal plants no longer have the ability to directly pass the costs along to consumers.
In Texas' competitive market, the most expensive plant operating at any given time sets the wholesale price for everybody. That's almost always a natural gas plant, because natural gas costs more than other types of fuel.
Coal is cheap, and coal plants tend to operate constantly, giving plant owners a fat margin compared with the wholesale rate. This arrangement has made a lot of money for Luminant and, in turn, the Tatum ISD.
Since the Legislature voted to deregulate the electricity industry in 1999, the taxable value of the Martin Lake plant has more than quadrupled to $1.7 billion, making Tatum a wealthy district. The company paid the school district $14.6 million in taxes last year.
Charles Rush, a manager for valuation consulting firm Pritchard & Abbott and the man who assesses the value of the Martin Lake plant for Rusk County, said deregulation required appraisers to value each of Luminant's assets individually, boosting their values.
Cut the profit expectations for Martin Lake, and Rush might have to reduce the taxable value, wiping out revenue for Tatum schools.
Setting a market price on greenhouse gas emissions could be the trigger. Coal emits about twice as much carbon dioxide as natural gas, making coal emissions twice as costly.
If carbon allowances become too expensive, or natural gas prices drop, coal profits would shrink.
Further, the proposed regulations are designed to encourage developers to build more renewable power plants, such as wind turbines, which could displace coal on the power grid.
"The bigger threat to the megawatt hours of the coal plant actually comes out of the renewable space," said Kevin Howell, president of NRG Energy's Texas operations. "On weekends, we see coal plants get cycled down."
Squeezing coal profits could affect communities like Tatum across the state that depend on the plant revenue, while potentially boosting tax revenue to those towns that get new, low-carbon nuclear reactors or wind farms. The result could be a shift in wealth among rural school districts.
The Glen Rose Independent School District, which encompasses Luminant's Comanche Peak nuclear plant, collected $23.2 million in taxes from the company in 2008. That's nearly twice as much as the Tatum ISD received. If Luminant builds two more reactors at the nuclear plant, as planned, the Glen Rose school tax revenue will surely rise.
Howell and his coal-operating brethren want a climate change bill that turns up the heat gradually. That would give NRG time to build nuclear reactors, which don't emit carbon dioxide while operating, or to develop technology to abate carbon dioxide emissions from coal.
Coal companies, including NRG, Luminant and Luminant's parent, Energy Future Holdings, are pressuring Washington, and winning some concessions.
Politicians from coal-heavy states have added provisions to the climate change bill to ease the burden on coal plants. The bill would grant merchant plants – coal plants owned by private companies – some emission allowances for free. Those allowances could cover up to half of the merchant plant emissions.
"What Congress has decided to do is buy off the coal people by giving them permits," said Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute.
During a speech to the Dallas Regional Chamber, he said: "Some of the people who are the worst culprits for producing carbon ... are getting the biggest handouts."
Each merchant coal plant would receive allocations based on the greenhouse gases it emitted from 2006 to 2008. That means plants that begin operating after 2008 – such as Luminant's two plants under construction and one recently completed – wouldn't get any free allowances.
Luminant, the largest power company in Texas, made 66 percent of its electricity last year with coal. The company owns 10 coal units and is building two more.
Those coal plants employ nearly 800 full-time employees and about 289 contractors. Last year, Luminant paid $118 million in county, school and city taxes.
The Martin Lake plant employs 285 people full time and around 130 contractors. Workers mark their plant anniversaries with stickers on their hardhats. The average tenure is about 25 years. The plant has given a city of mostly low-income families a school district so wealthy that it has to share some revenue with the state.
"Just through our property tax dollars, the school has been able to pay off bonds a lot sooner than they could have," said Superintendent Hartt, who's become an expert on wealthy school district financing. Other districts sometimes call, seeking his advice.
For some blue-collar families, the coal taxes provide their children a bridge to a white-collar life.
The Tatum alumni association raises money each year for the school. Hartt has declined the money and asked the group to give scholarships instead.
So every graduating senior in the class of 111 gets about $2,000 for college. Every single one.