For the second time in a year, legislation has been introduced at the state Legislature in Olympia to strip TransAlta’s Centralia coal plant of tax incentives worth millions of dollars.
Senate Bill 6573 would repeal a tax break the Legislature gave to the Centralia plant’s owner in 1997 to help defray the cost of $235 million in pollution control equipment.
Democratic Senators Eric Oemig, Randy Gordon, Joe McDermott, Kevin Ranker, Ken Jacobsen, Rodney Tom, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Margarita Prentice and Ed Murray are all co-sponsors on the bill, which was introduced Thursday.
A similar bill was put forward by state Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver, during the 2009 legislative session. Pridemore’s legislation would have forced TransAlta to repay the millions of dollars in exemptions granted to the company since the exemptions were approved.
The current bill, as introduced, includes no request for reimbursement.
Pridemore’s bill never reached the Senate floor for a vote. Pridemore, who is campaigning to fill the 3rd District Congressional seat after incumbent Brian Baird announced he would not seek re-election, is not listed as a sponsor of the new legislation.
The incentives are estimated to be worth approximately $10 million every two years.
TransAlta’s north Centralia plant is the only coal-fired power plant in Washington.
