Critical: Pacifico withdraws tax-break applications as expedited air review remains active
HISTORICAL UPDATE — SUPERSEDED AUGUST 30: County records confirm that Pacifico withdrew its two Bastrop County Chapter 312 applications. Pacifico said it also withdrew its Bastrop ISD/JETI J0049 application, but no Comptroller disposition confirming that withdrawal has been located. Neither action withdrew Air Registration 185019 / Project 413471. Pacifico's principal air application is now public and identifies 48 turbines and 1,326 MW of stated maximum nominal output. Registration 185019 remains pending. Use the current filing guide instead of the dated call and submission language below.
This dated article preserves what was known at publication. Pacifico's 54-page application is now public and identifies 48 turbines and 1,326 MW of stated maximum nominal output. Do not rely on older copy-ready filing language below. Read the latest project reconciliation, open the released-application analysis, and use the current action guide.
TCEQ could decide the registration without advance public notice.
TCEQ received Pacifico CCK Energy 1 LLC’s Electric Generating Unit Standard Permit registration on August 14 and marked the review EXPEDITED. No public decision date is posted. That means TCEQ could decide the registration without advance warning to residents or a site-specific comment period appearing first.
The complete registration still is not public. Residents therefore cannot independently verify which units and phases it covers, the final turbine inventory, the black-start generators and their fuel, whole-site potential to emit, or the operating and emissions limits Pacifico relies on to remain below major-source thresholds.
Representative Gerdes and Senator Schwertner
Ask both offices to contact TCEQ’s Executive Director and Air Permits Division immediately. Try each listed office today until you reach a staff member or leave a clear voicemail, then follow up by email.
Representative Stan Gerdes
Official office pageSenator Charles Schwertner
Official office pageTCEQ
Use this message in your own voice
Email subject: CALL REPRESENTATIVE GERDES AND SENATOR SCHWERTNER TODAY
Hi, my name is ____ and I’m a resident of ____.
I’m calling about Pacifico’s proposed massive data center and 710-megawatt natural-gas power plant in Cedar Creek—Permit 185019 / Project 413471.
An applicant conceptual site plan appears to depict as many as 43 gas-turbine packages—eight larger and 35 smaller units—plus black-start generators. But the complete air registration is not public, so the final count, models, operating limits, and black-start fuel remain unconfirmed. Pacifico is seeking approval through a TCEQ Electric Generating Unit Standard Permit rather than a full project-specific major-source air-permit process.
TCEQ may not approve the standard-permit registration unless the project qualifies under 30 TAC §§116.610(b) and (c). Before acting, TCEQ should release the complete registration and state in writing how it evaluated whole-site potential emissions, aggregation of related turbines and facilities, and the enforceability of any operating-hour or emissions limits.
I’m asking Representative Gerdes / Senator Schwertner to personally contact TCEQ immediately and strongly urge the agency not to approve Pacifico’s Standard Permit registration until those questions are answered publicly. A company should not be allowed to break ground on a 710-megawatt power plant through a streamlined process before TCEQ has determined whether the complete project requires a major air permit and full public participation. Thank you.
Local legislators, the House oversight committee, and TCEQ
The nine listed House members comprise the Committee on Environmental Regulation, which has oversight jurisdiction over TCEQ environmental regulation. Representative Ken King is included as an additional legislative contact, and the two added TCEQ mailboxes route directly to Air Permitting and Public Interest Counsel.
House Environmental Regulation committee clerk: 512-463-0776
Now, file a resident objection with TCEQ directly.
Pacifico chose an Electric Generating Unit Standard Permit route that does not provide the ordinary site-specific notice and contested-case process associated with a case-by-case major-source permit. Do not wait for a comment period that may never open: submit a written objection, request a public meeting, and explicitly ask to join the mailing list for Registration 185019.
Use eComments if it recognizes Registration 185019. Save the email confirmation or a copy of everything submitted. If the system does not accept the registration, call the Office of the Chief Clerk at 512-239-3300 and submit the same written filing by mail or hand delivery using its official instructions.
Try eComments if it recognizes Registration 185019. Otherwise, send the written pre-decision technical information to Air Permits and the Office of the Chief Clerk for routing to the project files. The separate environmental-complaint process is for suspected current violations, unauthorized activity, or pollution events.
Send a written objection
Every resident can identify the registration and put their air-permit concerns in writing before TCEQ acts.
Request a public meeting
Ask the Executive Director and Chief Clerk to hold one. Multiple individualized requests help document significant public interest, although they do not guarantee a meeting. Ask Representative Gerdes and Senator Schwertner to formally request the meeting under 30 TAC §55.154(c)(2) as well.
Describe personal impacts
If you live, work, attend school, own property, or spend substantial time nearby, add truthful details about your location and air-quality concerns in your own words.
- Applicant
- Pacifico CCK Energy 1 LLC
- Air NSR Registration
- 185019
- Project
- 413471
- Regulated Entity
- RN102987831
- Facility
- B & W Ranch / Cedar Creek
I am submitting written objections regarding Pacifico CCK Energy 1 LLC, Air NSR Registration 185019 / Project 413471, RN102987831, B & W Ranch in Cedar Creek. I request that the Executive Director and Office of the Chief Clerk hold a public meeting before acting on this registration. I ask TCEQ not to approve the registration until it publicly resolves whether the entire proposed site has been evaluated together, whether sitewide potential emissions trigger major-source review, whether any operating limits are enforceable, and whether 30 TAC §§116.610(b) and (c) bar use of this standard permit. Please add me to the mailing list for this registration.
Nearby residents: add two or three truthful sentences.
Do not send one identical personal-impact statement for everyone. Include your name, postal address, phone or email, and details specific to you. Information filed with TCEQ may become part of a public record.
- Your home, workplace, school, or property location and approximate distance from the facility.
- How often and how long you are present at that location.
- How air emissions could affect health, outdoor work, children, respiratory conditions, livestock, or use and enjoyment of property.
Specific issues residents can raise
- Whether the complete 710-megawatt project, all turbine packages, and black-start generators were evaluated together.
- Whether whole-site potential emissions exceed a major-source threshold.
- Whether operating-hour or emissions restrictions are federally enforceable.
- Whether separate units, phases, affiliates, or limits artificially divide the project to avoid full New Source Review.
- Whether §116.610(b) bars this facility from the standard-permit route and §116.610(c) bars artificial limitations.
- Why expedited review began before the registration, emissions calculations, operating assumptions, and equipment specifications were publicly released.
Current TCEQ rules do not appear to provide a site-specific contested-case-hearing right for an ordinary EGU Standard Permit registration. Do not assume this filing creates or preserves that right. If TCEQ instead requires a noticed, case-by-case major-source permit, affected residents should then file timely, personalized comments and hearing requests under that separate public notice.
Why many individual submissions still matter
- They create a dated written record of concerns submitted before TCEQ acts.
- Numerous public-meeting requests help demonstrate substantial public interest.
- Personalized accounts show that the objection is not isolated or abstract.
- An explicit mailing-list request asks TCEQ to send any future notice or decision concerning this registration.
A September 1 policy change raises questions—not an August 31 approval deadline.
TCEQ has announced that, beginning September 1, it may decline to accept certain incomplete permit-by-rule and standard-permit applications, including Electric Generating Unit Standard Permit filings. Pacifico filed on August 14. Lost Pines Watch has not confirmed how TCEQ will apply the new intake policy to this pending registration, that August 31 is an approval deadline, or that the filing date proves Pacifico’s motive.
The urgent fact does not depend on that theory: Pacifico removed the pending tax-incentive proceedings while its expedited air registration remains active with no posted decision date. Ask Representative Gerdes and Senator Schwertner to contact TCEQ immediately. Keep trying their listed offices until you reach staff or leave a clear voicemail. If you have already contacted both offices, call TCEQ Air Permits directly as well.
TCEQ: September 1 completeness-policy announcementWant more detail on what changed?
Bastrop County confirms that the two Chapter 312 applications were withdrawn August 19. Pacifico separately told KVUE that it withdrew the Bastrop ISD/JETI application; no Comptroller withdrawal disposition has been located. If the projects proceed as described, Pacifico says they will pay full property taxes. That is good for county, emergency-service, and school-tax revenue.
But the confirmed County withdrawals—and Pacifico's reported JETI withdrawal—also remove pending public tax-incentive decisions where residents could press for denial, delay, enforceable conditions, or fuller disclosure. Neither action cancels the project or withdraws Air Registration 185019.
Record-status note: J0049 no longer appears on the Comptroller's public application list, but the former detail page posts no withdrawal notice or effective date.
Pacifico says the projects will not receive the requested local or school-tax breaks.
The County no longer has the Chapter 312 votes; Pacifico says it ended its JETI request.
Permit 185019 / Project 413471 remains the immediate decision to watch.
Last night’s town hall meeting was a success—but more on that soon.
The immediate issue remains Pacifico’s active, expedited TCEQ air registration. The public tax-incentive proceedings are being removed from the project’s path while the air decision remains unresolved.
Thank you to Bastrop County Commissioners Butch Carmackand Mark Meuth for showing up and supporting the community at last night’s meeting.
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