State goes to bat for power plant

Sep 19 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Kathy Mellott The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.

Pennsylvania's top environmental leader is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to drop its legal action against EME Homer City power plant in light of a $725 million effort to reduce air emissions at the Indiana County facility.

In a letter to Lisa Jackson, administrator of the EPA, Michael Krancer, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, terms EPA's insistence on continuing with a lawsuit, filed against the plant early last year, as "bull-headed."

"A great victory has already been won with respect to Homer City. So2 (sulfur dioxide) controls are being installed which will result in a dramatic decrease in emissions," Krancer wrote in his letter, made available to The Tribune-Democrat.

He goes on to say that EPA's insistence on continuing litigation makes no sense in light of the facts, threatens jobs in western Pennsylvania and is not in the best interests of the citizens of Pennsylvania.

The Homer City plant has three boilers and generates enough energy to power 2 million homes a day.

While it is considered one of the dirtiest coal-fired plants in the nation, the huge investment will eliminate sulfur dioxide emissions by more than 90 percent at each of the boilers, state officials said.

The third boiler already has been equipped with scrubbers to address pollution concerns.

"This is no small potatoes. They are doing a major construction job there," DEP spokesman John Poister said Tuesday.

But apparently EPA thinks more can and should be done.

An EPA spokeswoman referred a request for comment to Wyn Hornbuckle of the U.S. Department of Justice, who declined to comment because the matter is in litigation.

The legal battle started in January 2011 when EPA filed a lawsuit against the Homer City plant in the U.S. District Court for Western?Pennsylvania, accusing the plant of permitting violations from the 1990s regarding sulfur dioxide emission on the two uncontrolled units.

In October, the federal court dismissed EPA's complaints in their entirety, prompting EPA to subsequently file a notice of appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, asking that the dismissal be reversed, Krancer wrote in his letter.

Planning for the environmental upgrade by Edison Mission Energy, parent company of Homer City Generating Station, was already well under way.

DEP's permit approval for installation of the pollution controls came in April and work should be completed by 2014, said Charley Parnell, spokesman for Edison Mission Energy.

When online, the controls will pull 92 percent of sulfur dioxide from one of the units and

94 percent from the other.

"They (EPA) don't think it's enough. They would like to cut the sulfur dioxide emissions by half over what will be the case when the improvements are in place," Poister said.

New EPA air quality standards set to go into effect in 2013 are causing many coal-fired power plants to re-evaluate the future of their facilities.

Some are switching to natural gas or shutting.

Coal producer Alpha Natural Resources, which supplies a number of coal-fired plants, said Tuesday it was eliminating 1,200 jobs by closing eight mines in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia, including one in Jefferson County.

The loss of the Homer City plant would be devastating, officials said.

"Homer City is definitely a key contributor to power for the entire Northeast power grid," Poister said. "If you take that away, if that plant shuts down tomorrow, it is questionable if the power needs of the entire northeastern United States can be met."

Bob Duey, managing director of the Homer City plant, spelled out a complicated formula that said if the amount of power generated at Homer City plant were to come from wind power, it would require 394,183 acres of wind facilities.

"There are about 534,000 acres in Indiana County, so if we cover 74 percent of the county with wind turbines, it's a break-even, if the wind blows enough," he said.

U.S. Rep. Mark Critz, D-Johnstown, said he hoped the feuding agencies would come to some agreement on the plant.

"I'm hopeful that the EPA will recognize these measures and work with the DEP to identify the best way forward for consumers, plant employees and our environment," he said in an email to The Tribune-Democrat.

U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Hollidaysburg, said the EPA's actions are unjustified and are an attempt to shut down the coal industry.

"I support Secretary Krancer's letter to the EPA and echo his assertion that additional litigation against the Homer City station is unwarranted and unnecessary," Shuster said in an email.

Krancer, in his letter to EPA, said the continued litigation is a waste of time and energy and termed the action as "piling on."

"(It) shows the federal administration is completely out of touch with the on-the-ground facts in Western Pennsylvania," he wrote.