A Chevron Texas Power Plant Seeks School District Tax Break
A Chevron Texas Power Plant Seeks School District Tax Break
雪佛龙德州发电厂寻求学区税收减免
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.
一家大型石油公司正寻求在德克萨斯州获得价值数亿美元的税收减免，用于建造一座大型发电厂。然而，这些能源并不会供应给居民用户。相反，这座天然气发电厂将用于为数据中心供电，而该数据中心的潜在租户可能是微软。
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.
雪佛龙旗下的子公司 Energy Forge One 已向州审计长委员会提交申请，为其在西德克萨斯州建造的发电厂寻求税收减免。1 月下旬，审计长办公室建议批准该申请——这是该计划下首个专门用于数据中心供电的发电厂获批案例。
In March, following news reports that Microsoft was looking into purchasing power from the Energy Forge project, Chevron said that it had entered into an “exclusivity agreement” with Microsoft and Engine 1, an investment fund involved in the project. In January, Microsoft pledged to be a “good neighbor” in communities where it is building data centers, including promising to pay a “full and fair share of local property taxes.”
3 月，在有新闻报道称微软正考虑从 Energy Forge 项目购买电力后，雪佛龙表示已与微软及参与该项目的投资基金 Engine 1 签署了“排他性协议”。今年 1 月，微软承诺在其建设数据中心的社区做一名“好邻居”，包括承诺支付“足额且公平的当地房产税”。
The potential tax abatement for the project comes as big tech companies are battling rising public fury about data centers and electricity costs. It also comes as lawmakers start to cast a more critical eye on ballooning incentives for data centers, some of which have cost some states—including Texas—$1 billion or more each year.
该项目潜在的税收减免正值大型科技公司因数据中心和电力成本问题而面临公众日益高涨的愤怒之际。与此同时，立法者也开始以更审慎的眼光审视针对数据中心不断膨胀的激励措施，其中一些措施每年已让包括德克萨斯州在内的部分州损失了 10 亿美元或更多。
Chevron spokesperson Paula Beasley told WIRED in an email that all tax incentives under consideration for the Energy Forge project “apply solely to the power generation facility” to “support new energy infrastructure, and do not extend to any future data center facilities that may be served.” Beasley also said that there is currently “no definitive agreement” with Microsoft for this power plant.
雪佛龙发言人宝拉·比斯利（Paula Beasley）在给《连线》（WIRED）的一封电子邮件中表示，Energy Forge 项目正在考虑的所有税收激励措施“仅适用于发电设施”，旨在“支持新的能源基础设施，并不延伸至未来可能服务的任何数据中心设施”。比斯利还表示，目前与微软就该发电厂“没有达成最终协议”。
“Microsoft is in discussions with Chevron,” Rima Alaily, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and general counsel for infrastructure, said in a statement to WIRED. “No commercial terms have been finalized, and there is no definitive agreement at this time.”
“微软正在与雪佛龙进行讨论，”微软负责基础设施的企业副总裁兼总法律顾问里玛·阿拉伊利（Rima Alaily）在给《连线》的声明中表示，“目前尚未敲定任何商业条款，也没有达成最终协议。”
Chevron is applying for a tax abatement for the project under Texas’ Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation (JETI) Act. Passed in 2023, the program is intended to incentivize businesses to build large infrastructure projects in the state in exchange for guarantees to bring jobs and revenue. Accepted projects get a cap set on the amount of taxable property they can be charged through local school district taxes.
雪佛龙正根据德克萨斯州的《就业、能源、技术和创新法案》（JETI Act）为该项目申请税收减免。该计划于 2023 年通过，旨在激励企业在州内建设大型基础设施项目，以换取创造就业机会和税收的保证。获批项目可对其通过当地学区税收征收的应纳税财产金额设定上限。
The Pecos-Barstow-Toyah school board approved the project’s application at a meeting in February. The state pays for the tax abatement, so the school district itself does not lose out on any money.
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah 学区委员会在 2 月份的会议上批准了该项目的申请。税收减免由州政府支付，因此学区本身不会损失任何资金。
According to documents from the state, the Chevron project could net more than $227 million in savings for the company over a 10-year period, depending on the eventual size of the project and investment. The application says the plant will provide “over 25 permanent, full-time jobs,” though there’s no requirement to do so because it’s considered an electricity generation facility.
根据州政府文件，雪佛龙该项目在 10 年内可为公司节省超过 2.27 亿美元，具体取决于项目的最终规模和投资额。申请书称该工厂将提供“超过 25 个永久性全职工作岗位”，尽管由于它被视为发电设施，并没有强制要求这样做。
The planned gas plant won’t connect to the grid, instead providing “electricity for direct consumption by a data center,” according to its application. So-called behind-the-meter gas plants have become increasingly popular for data center developers facing yearslong waits to connect to the grid. According to data from nonprofit Global Energy Monitor, the US at the start of the year had nearly 100 gigawatts of gas-fired power in the development pipeline solely to power data centers, with several more massive gas projects announced since the data was published.
根据申请书，计划中的天然气发电厂不会接入电网，而是“为数据中心直接消耗提供电力”。对于面临长达数年电网接入等待的数据中心开发商来说，所谓的“表后”（behind-the-meter）天然气发电厂正变得越来越受欢迎。根据非营利组织“全球能源监测”（Global Energy Monitor）的数据，今年年初，美国仅用于为数据中心供电的在建天然气发电项目就接近 100 吉瓦，自该数据发布以来，又宣布了几个规模巨大的天然气项目。
A WIRED analysis of less than a dozen power plants being constructed to explicitly serve data centers, including the Chevron project, found that these power plants are permitted to emit more greenhouse gases than many small- to medium-size countries. The Energy Forge plant alone could emit more than 11.5 million tons of CO2 equivalent annually—more than the country of Jamaica emitted in 2024. Beasley told WIRED that the plant “is being designed to comply with applicable environmental regulations, including all applicable federal and state air quality standards.”
《连线》对包括雪佛龙项目在内的不到一打专门为数据中心服务的在建发电厂进行了分析，发现这些发电厂获准排放的温室气体比许多中小型国家还要多。仅 Energy Forge 发电厂每年就可能排放超过 1150 万吨二氧化碳当量——超过了牙买加在 2024 年的排放量。比斯利告诉《连线》，该工厂“在设计上旨在遵守适用的环境法规，包括所有适用的联邦和州空气质量标准”。
West Texas is a major fossil fuel production hub, which has helped it emerge as a hot spot for both data centers and behind-the-meter gas development. However, Energy Forge’s JETI application notes that the site is one of six across the US under consideration. Without tax incentives, the other sites would be “more attractive locations” to build a gas plant, according to its application, and “Texas would lose the opportunity to attract billions of dollars in new tax revenues.”
西德克萨斯州是主要的化石燃料生产中心，这使其成为数据中心和“表后”天然气开发的热点地区。然而，Energy Forge 的 JETI 申请指出，该选址是全美考虑中的六个地点之一。申请书称，如果没有税收激励，其他地点将是建造天然气发电厂“更具吸引力的位置”，“德克萨斯州将失去吸引数十亿美元新税收收入的机会”。
This type of claim on applications for tax abatements is pretty routine, says Nathan Jensen, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin. An earlier version of the JETI program, originally created to draw more manufacturing jobs to Texas, handed out incentives to businesses with little oversight, often giving millions in tax breaks to companies already planning on building in the state. While the JETI program significantly curbs the problems and excesses of the old program, Jensen says that the guardrails for a project like Chevron’s are still relatively low.
德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校政府学教授内森·詹森（Nathan Jensen）表示，在税收减免申请中提出此类主张是相当常规的做法。JETI 计划的早期版本最初旨在为德克萨斯州吸引更多制造业工作岗位，但在几乎没有监管的情况下向企业发放激励措施，经常向那些已经计划在州内建设的公司提供数百万美元的税收减免。虽然 JETI 计划显著遏制了旧计划的问题和过度行为，但詹森认为，针对像雪佛龙这类项目的护栏仍然相对较低。
The JETI tax incentive isn’t the only tax break the power plant could receive. According to county documents, the Energy Forge project could also be eligible for a local incentive that exempts all or part of a property’s value from taxes for up to a decade, under another part of the Texas tax code.
JETI 税收激励并不是该发电厂可能获得的唯一税收减免。根据县政府文件，根据德克萨斯州税法的另一部分，Energy Forge 项目还有资格获得一项地方激励措施，即在长达十年的时间内免除全部或部分房产价值的税收。
Developers have taken advantage of other tax abatements across the US. A report released in April from Good Jobs First, a corporate watchdog group, found that at least three states—including Texas—are losing more than $1 billion in revenue each year from data center sales tax abatements.
开发商们一直在利用美国各地的其他税收减免政策。企业监督组织“美好工作优先”（Good Jobs First）在 4 月份发布的一份报告发现，包括德克萨斯州在内的至少三个州，每年因数据中心销售税减免而损失超过 10 亿美元的收入。
A bipartisan group of politicians in Texas, including Republican lieutenant governor Dan Patrick, have expressed mounting…
德克萨斯州的一个两党政治家团体，包括共和党副州长丹·帕特里克（Dan Patrick），已经表达了日益增长的……