SUGAR LAND, Texas (KTRK) – The city of Sugar Land claims it has a solution to rolling blackouts, but some residents reject it.

The city plans to build a natural gas power plant that can generate up to 148 megawatts of electricity on the site of the former Central Unit prison, just west of Sugar Land Regional Airport.

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In May, the city agreed to a temporary lease with Finnish company Wartsila to survey the site and determine whether building a factory there would be feasible.

“It would actually only run 30 to 35 percent of the time, so it’s not a full-time power plant. It only runs during peak times,” said Sugar Land Mayor Joe Zimmerman.

While the electricity will be fed into the national grid, his city will be given priority in the event of power outages and winter storms, Zimmerman said.

However, Richard Crounse, a resident of Sugar Land, said he and his neighbors would also receive priority access to the pollution the plant would cause.

“If this power plant is built, methane will be released into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide will be released,” Crounse claimed.

“Children who play outside during recess cannot choose what air they breathe. But it is up to us to make sure that the air they breathe is clean,” said neighbor Anna Lykoudis-Zafiris.

Zimmerman said those concerns were overblown.

“We will comply with all clean air standards. We will comply with all Texas Commission on Environmental Quality standards,” the mayor said.

Representatives of Zimmerman and Wartsila presented this position to 100 people at a town hall meeting in New Territory on Wednesday evening, but were unable to convince some.

“We don’t want that here. So what does the city have to do to listen to us? They shouldn’t have even given us a temporary contract,” said Lykoudis-Zafiris.

If Wartsila concludes that it can build a power plant at this site, it would have to apply to the city for a contract to use the land.

Zimmerman said the facility could not be built until 2028 at the earliest.

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