![](images/Logos/Indiana%20Gazette%20LOGO%20copy.jpg)
May
12, 2023
By
Patrick Cloonan
EPA proposal could impact remaining area coal-fired
power plants
![](images/images_07_19_2023/645d9f4af1f1e%20copy.jpg)
Another view of the Homer City Generation LP plant, as posted on the
plant’s Facebook page.
The
United States Environmental Protection Agency is proposing Clean Air
Act emission limits and guidelines for carbon dioxide from fossil
fuel-fired power plants based on cost-effective and available control
technologies.
EPA said the proposals would set limits for new gas-fired combustion
turbines, existing coal, oil and gas-fired steam generating units, and
certain existing gas-fired combustion turbines — and are drawing
criticism in some circles in west-central Pennsylvania.
“Consistent with EPA’s traditional approach to establishing pollution
standards for power plants under section 111 of the Clean Air Act, the
proposed standards are based on technologies such as carbon capture
and sequestration/storage, low-GHG hydrogen co-firing, and natural gas
co-firing, which can be applied directly to power plants that use
fossil fuels to generate electricity.”
The proposals will be detailed in a pair of webinars on June 6 and 7.
EPA said there is a target audience of “tribal environmental
professionals, communities and organizations with environmental
justice concerns.” Registration can be made through the epa.gov
website.
“The EPA’s newly announced carbon pollution limits on power plants is
a big win for the climate and a major step toward cleaner air and
better health,” Clean Power PA Coalition said in touting the EPA’s
statement. “The EPA is taking a common-sense approach with these new
standards, giving states and companies the flexibility to decide how
best to meet the requirements.”
The coalition of clean energy, business, faith and community leaders
said the proposal will bring “big health and climate benefits to
Pennsylvania, which is the third-highest carbon polluter from power
plants in the country.”
According to the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center, just 12
industrial facilities, power plants, mines and other large polluters
account for nearly one-fifth of the commonwealth’s total climate
pollution — and the top three are in or around Indiana County, the
Keystone plant near Shelocta and Elderton, the Conemaugh plant near
New Florence, and the Homer City Generation LP plant scheduled to
close by July.
It also ranked Seward Generation LLC in southern Indiana County
seventh on its list.
Clean Power PA Coalition also touted “a proven policy, the Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative,” which it said would “meet the required
pollution reductions, while empowering the state to reinvest in
communities to position them for the clean energy transition. These
new power plant standards are yet another reason why RGGI is the best
path forward for Pennsylvania.”
Area state lawmakers begged to disagree.
“The Biden administration is out of touch with hard-working families,
and this decision by the EPA is the wrong tactic at the wrong time,
which will cause more harm than good,” said state Senate Majority
Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana. “The new standards underscore why a
state-by-state approach is unproductive and RGGI has no measurable
value in these conversations. Advancing well-balanced energy policies
for Pennsylvania must be our focus.”
State Rep. Jim Struzzi, R-Indiana, whose district includes the Homer
City Generation LP plant that is shutting down by July, said, “we see
the direct and devastating impact these policies have on jobs right
here in Indiana County. As I have said before, environmental concerns
should be addressed in conjunction with energy production, not to the
detriment of family sustaining jobs, economic losses and uncertainty
in the power grid.”
In a statement, the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance said, while “(the)
announcement by the Biden administration to target fossil fuel-fired
power plant emissions may sound pleasing to environmentalists, it
fails to take into consideration the detrimental effect it will have
on daily lives and pocketbooks of Americans and businesses who will be
forced to pay more for electricity that ultimately will become less
reliable.”
The coal alliance also said “just a few months ago coal generation
saved PJM’s grid from failure — accounting for nearly 50 percent of
the generation that rescued the grid from blackouts when other sources
failed to show up when called upon. Recognizing this, coal-fired
generation is a major source of reliable and resilient baseload
generation, and grid operator PJM Interconnection and (Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission) have recently warned of the future of the
reliability of the grid which is being compromised by policies such as
this and the $800 million per year Pennsylvania RGGI tax. This all
while the Biden administration continues to push the use of electric
vehicles, lacking a coherent plan to power them without the use of
reliable, baseload electric generation.”
The coal alliance said it and its members “believe in a diverse energy
mix that includes any source that can contribute to a reliable
electric grid, including coal-fired generation.” It said policies like
what was released Thursday by the EPA “will compromise our grid,
making it increasingly unstable and unreliable, and at a high cost to
both consumers and businesses.”
The Clean Power PA Coalition has maintained that RGGI is not a factor
in decisions such as that by Homer City Generation to wind down
operations.
“It’s sad and difficult when workers lose their jobs,” a spokesman for
the coalition said in response to a Gazette inquiry. “It’s hard for
their families, and it’s hard for the community. The closing in Homer
City, like the Cheswick coal plant closing last year and the dozens of
other coal plant closings across the state in the last two decades, is
not because of RGGI or because of federal carbon pollution standards,
neither of which are in place. It’s because of a long-coming energy
market shift from coal production to cheaper energy sources,
particularly fracked gas.”
The spokesman went on to say Homer City Generation struggled through
two bankruptcies over the last decade due to market conditions in its
attempt to continue, and then asked: “What are these companies — and
what are our legislators — willing to do to help those who are losing
their jobs? Everyone, regardless of their positions on energy policy,
should be focusing on solutions for local families.”
At its meeting Wednesday, the Indiana County Board of Commissioners
approved efforts by the Indiana County Office of Planning &
Development and the Indiana County Development Corporation to seek
funding from the federal Economic Development Administration through
its Assistance to Coal Communities Initiative.
“It is our intention to seek additional economic development and
workforce development planning dollars from EDA,” ICOPD/ICPC Executive
Director Byron G. Stauffer Jr. said. “In total, the authorization will
be to request between $2 million and $3 million from EDA.”
Stauffer said the funding could match $3 million in state
Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program money obtained with the
support of Struzzi and Pittman for capital projects in ICDC’s
Corporate Campus Business Park in Burrell Township, the 119 Business
Park in Center Township and the Windy Ridge Business & Technology Park
in White Township.
Stauffer said he hoped it would be the first of a series of
applications for help for areas affected by the pending shutdown at
Homer City — and also that local businesses have reached out to
provide assistance in the form of jobs for the more than 100 Homer
City employees to be affected, and there has been state-level rapid
response from the Department of Labor & Industry and PA CareerLink.
Green Play Ammonia™, Yielder® NFuel Energy.
Spokane, Washington. 99212
www.exactrix.com
509 995 1879 cell, Pacific.
Nathan1@greenplayammonia.com
exactrix@exactrix.com
|