Ky. Offering Cash Creek Tax Incentives
Posted on: Saturday, 29 March 2008, 00:00 CDT
By CHUCK STINNETT, The Gleaner 831-8343 or cstinnett@thegleaner.com
Cash Creek Generation LLC could earn up to $150 million in state tax incentives if it builds a nearly $2 billion coal-fueled power plant in eastern Henderson County.
The exact amount of the incentive package? would be negotiated between Cash Creek and the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority, a state agency that gave preliminary approval to the package Thursday.
Kevin Sheilley, president and CEO of the Henderson-based Northwest Kentucky Forward regional economic development organization, said the incentive package could include:
* Up to 100 percent of sales and use taxes on equipment bought in the state to build the plant.
* Up to 80 percent of severance taxes collected on coal that is used.
* Up to 100 percent of Kentucky income taxes paid.
* Up to 4 percent of the gross wages on each employee.
For years manufacturing plants have been awarded incentives to locate in Kentucky, and last year the Kentucky General Assembly approved the Incentives for Energy Independence Act to offer incentives for construction of certain types of energy plants.
Those include alternative fuel facilities, gasification plants and renewable energy facilities.
Cash Creek Generation would be an integrated gasification combined cycle power plant that would convert coal to a synthetic natural gas that would be burned to generate electricity.
The $1.97 billion plant would employ approximately 250 people to operate it at wages averaging $23 per hour, according to a project summary provided to the state finance authority board.
It also would create a peak construction work force of 1,500.
Additionally, it could create 150 new mining jobs. The plant would use approximately 1.7 million tons of coal a year, likely from an adjacent Patriot Coal Co. mine or possibly from a mine being developed by Massey Coal Co. near the McLean-Daviess county line.
Cash Creek Generation is owned by The Erora Group, which is jointly owned by Green Rock LLC (an entity owned by investment bankers Goldman Sachs and D.E. Shaw Group) and an affiliate of General Electric, a major producer of power plant components.
(c) 2008 Evansville Courier & Press. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: Evansville Courier & Press
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