May 12, 2023
By Patrick Cloonan

EPA proposal could impact remaining area coal-fired power plants

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.