The Kendall County Commission Tuesday voted to move toward the establishment of an agreement with Kerr County to strengthen its opposition to the creation of battery energy storage systems (BESS) in the Comfort area.
The action came as the commission approved a resolution requesting the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality deny all permits for BESS facilities proposed in the county.
The commissioners are considering the formation of the Hill Country Energy Commission Sub-Regional Planning Commission (SRPC) with Kerr County under Chapter 391 of the Texas Local Government Code, which authorizes any combination of two counties or municipalities to establish a committee to interact with state agencies in defending the health, safety and welfare of its citizenry.
“This is very real, and it can be used very effectively,” the commissioners heard Waller County Judge Trey Duhon state. “Any county or any two cities ... that are dealing with a state agency, this is an effective way to get them to come to the table and work with the local communities, rather than just stamp something and go down the road.”
Duhon was instrumental in forming a Waller County sub-regional planning commission that helped protect Waller property owners from TxDOT’s plan to build the Trans-Texas Corridor.
“That’s what it’s about, you have to treat us as equal partners,” Duhon said of the power gained by their formation of a planning group. “If we have concerns of an impact in our community, they have to make every effort within reason to mitigate or accommodate that concern.”
That meant TxDOT couldn’t just steamroll through Waller County and neighboring counties with its Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), a network that would have been composed of a 4,000-mile network of supercorridors up to 1,200 feet wide to carry parallel links of tollways, rails and utility lines.
The TTC was formulated in 2001 but died in 2010 from just such opposition.
“When they realized they were going to have to cooperate, they realized they weren’t going to get it built the way they wanted to get it built,” Duhon said, “and that’s when they chose the ‘no-build’ option.
“That’s when we realized these subregional planning commissions could be very powerful,” he added.
Duhon participated in Kendall County’s Zoom meeting Tuesday, advising them on their efforts to form a sub-regional planning committee to work with — and against — efforts to create BESS operations in Comfort.
“Forming a subregional planning committee gives the participating agencies a chance to be heard, to be treated as equal partners,” he said.
Kendall County commissioners heard from more than a dozen impassioned residents vehemently opposed to the creation of the BESS businesses alongside their properties on a narrow, two-lane backwoods dead-end road on the outskirts of Comfort.
More than 275 area residents packed a Jan. 29 meeting in Comfort where a firm, Key Capture Energy, explained its efforts to apply for a tax abatement for its plans to build its Ringtail Ridge storage facility on 3 acres of an 8-acre plat the company leases along Flat Rock Creek Road off FM 473.
The lithium-ion batteries store energy at times of low demand and put the energy back on the grid during high demand. KCE has a 20-year lease to operate the Comfort site, which was chosen because of its proximity to an LCRA substation in the area.
“I think it would be a very effective tool,” Duhon told the commission. “It’s an interlocal (agreement) done by resolution between entities. You do that to get state agencies, in this case TCEQ, to sit down and really go through these technical issues you are raising, and to go through a lot of these technical issues you are raising.”
By law, he said, the agency has to make an effort to address those concerns if they can, “or maybe that becomes the basis for not granting a permit.”
“I encourage any county to use the sub-regional planning committee when needed. It’s sometimes the only way you can get the state or state officials or agencies ... to come to the table,” he added.
The commission’s resolution stated the purpose of the Hill Country Energy Commission Sub-Regional Planning Committee is to “cooperate and coordinate with local government units sharing similar needs to plan for all matters dealing with health, safety and general welfare of their residents.”
Judge Shane Stolarczyk questioned whether the formation of the committee could have any impact on BESS firms, which are private businesses and not state agencies, even though they have been granted the OK from TCEQ for their efforts.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Andra Wisian made the motion to have the county pursue the partnership with Kerr County to form the 391 commission “to compel state agencies to coordinate to protect the local community from government overreach, specifically regarding energy storage systems in Kendall County” and to bring back questions to commissioner court answers.
“We know we do have the duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of our residents, but know that too often, we lack the tools from the Texas Legislature to do this,” Wisian said.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Chad Carpenter reminded the commission that firms currently do not have to involve the county when they apply to TCEQ for permits.
“That doesn’t come before us. That means we’re not even in the conversation,” Carpenter said.
The 391, he said, gives the county a “sit-down discussion before something gets permitted without us even knowing what’s happening,” he said.
Comment
Comments