A Chevron Texas Power Plant Seeks School District Tax Break

https://media.wired.com/photos/69ebc7d4ee23b5db1d09595a/191:100/w_1280,c_limit/Data-Centers-Seek-Tax-Breaks-Science-2249559336.jpg

A major oil company is seeking a state tax break in Texas worth hundreds of millions of dollars to build a massive power plant. The energy won’t be going to residential customers, though. Instead, the gas plant will be used to power a data center whose eventual tenant could be Microsoft.

Chevron subsidiary Energy Forge One has filed an application with the State Comptroller’s board to obtain a tax abatement for a power plant it’s building in West Texas. In late January, the comptroller’s office made a recommendation to support the application’s approval—the first such approval under the program for a power plant intended solely for data center use.

In March, following news reports that Microsoft was looking into purchasing power from the Energy Forge project, Chevron saidthat it had entered into an “exclusivity agreement” with Microsoft and Engine 1, an investment fund involved in the project. In January,...

Copyright of this story solely belongs to wired.com. To see the full text click HERE