The acquisition of the Big Brown Power Plant by Commercial Liability Partners (CLP) at the end of January is still fresh on the minds of Fairfield, Texas residents.
Fairfield Economic Development’s President David Fowler gave his insight into the positive force the purchase could bring into the community.
When asked how he feels about the purchase Fowler states emphatically, “I feel great. It’s a positive thing.”
He further explains that Luminant had a main goal of selling the power plant, and all their locations.
Fowler emphasizes how this is the first step in Luminant making more of their vast holdings accessible and how important that can ultimately be for the economic development of the surrounding areas.
There is much speculation about what the property could ultimately become, but that is an answer time will tell. Not even CLP has an answer for that yet.
“The description on the deed says about 800 plus or minus acres. It is the area just around the power plant and just up to the shore of the lake,” Fowler explained.
“I think that whatever goes out there will benefit from the ability to use the utility infrastructure in place. There are lots of transmission lines, there is water at the lake. There is an abundance of natural gas, and there is railway not far away,” He states, “It could give our community a lot of options as to various types of industries that could go out there.”
The emphasis on the infrastructure and the fact it is already in existence is huge, as the cost of adding the amount of new infrastructure would be high.
Fowler says his goal is to be helpful in anything that economical benefits the Fairfield area, including working with CLP as they work through the process of remediation.
The rail and land assets becoming available is something he is hopeful will happen, maybe even before the plant is decommissioned.
As the excitement through this time-consuming project continues the ‘Times’ will keep our readers updated.
