The Odessa City Council will discuss a $2.4 million grant for a company that plans to build a carbon capturing facility and Oncor’s plan to increase rates at its Tuesday workshop meeting.
The meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. in the city council chambers on the fifth floor of City Hall, 411 W. Eighth St.
According to city documents, Oncor announced on May 13 it intends to increase its rates in all cities it provides electricity to by a total of $251 million beginning June 17. Residents would see an increase of 11.2% and street lighting rates would increase by 1.6%.
By statute, cities can extend the effective date by up to 90 days to study the rate increase, at which time they can settle or deny Oncor’s rate increase. The council will be asked Tuesday to enter a resolution joining 169 cities that plan to hire and direct legal council and consultants to negotiate with Oncor.
Occidental Petroleum is also on Tuesday’s agenda.
Occidental Petroleum and a group of partners is considering building a new $810 million facility that could help reduce the area’s carbon footprint and last month the Odessa Development Corporation unanimously agreed it would ask the city council to approve a $2.4 million grant to get the group to build the facility near Penwell.
The plant would remove 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide directly from the air, in what would be the world’s largest direct air capture project. According to a Houston Chronicle article, the facility would join 70 direct air capture facilities that are expected to become active by 2035.
Once the carbon dioxide is captured the company, 1PointFive, would solidify it, store it and sell it. The company anticipates hiring a total of 125 employees over a five-year period resulting in a payroll nearing $23 million at the end of that time period and has already announced the plant will be located in the Permian Basin.
According to the company’s website, the facility is currently in “front-end engineering and development” and will be operational by late 2024.
The company’s mission is to curb global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050, according to the website.
The council is also expected to discuss accepting and appropriating a $50,000 gift to the police department, waterline replacements on Crane Avenue and designing Dawn Avenue from 61st Street to Yukon.
