Rep.
Guy Reschenthaler
(R-PA) blasted the
Biden administration
for the shutdown of the
Homer City Generating Station
scheduled for July 1.
“The largest coal plant in Pennsylvania, 50 miles east of Pittsburgh, announced it is shutting down — costing hardworking Americans their jobs and livelihoods,” Reschenthaler tweeted on Sunday morning.
“Among the reasons for ceasing operations? Biden’s burdensome and disastrous Green New Deal agenda,” he added.
The largest coal plant in Pennsylvania announced it is shutting down – costing hardworking Americans their jobs and livelihoods.
Among the reasons for ceasing operations? Biden’s burdensome and disastrous Green New Deal agenda. pic.twitter.com/O8S7AlK24q
— Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (@GReschenthaler) April 16, 2023
NEW EVIDENCE THAT BIDEN’S WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS WILL DESTROY COMMUNITIES
The Homer City Generating Station made the
announcement
in early April that it would be decommissioning all of its coal units.
“This is an unfortunate day for us at Homer City because we did everything possible to maintain our operations,” President and CEO William A. Wexler said in a statement. “Everyone at Homer City was committed to helping power our community and no one embodied that commitment more than our workers.”
The shutdown will occur over the course of three months, along with tiered layoffs.
The plant has operated since 1969. At full capacity, the plant could power up to 2 million homes, but according to the Sierra Club, it has been running at less than half-capacity since 2015 and was only at 20% capacity in 2022.
Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter Clean Energy Program Director Thomas Schuster
recently
said the shutdown process of the plant is already resulting in cleaner air.
Some of the reasons why the plant is closing include high coal prices, warm winters driving down energy demand, changes in ownership, gaps in maintenance, and economic and staffing struggles.
The power company has been warning about “stringent” emissions limits affecting it in its annual reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dating back to 2010.
“State and local environmental regulations, particularly those that impose stringent state specific emission limits, could put the Homer City plant at a disadvantage compared with competing power plants operating in nearby states and subject to less stringent state emission limits or to federal emission limits alone,” the company said in its form 10-K in its annual
SEC
filing. “Potential future climate change regulations could also put the Homer City plant at a disadvantage compared to both power plants utilizing other fuels and utilities that may be able to recover climate change compliance costs through rate-base mechanisms.”
The company said in the report: “In addition, the ability of these plants to compete may be affected by governmental and regulatory activities designed to support the construction and operation of power generation facilities fueled by renewable energy sources.”
Reschenthaler, the House chief deputy whip, is no stranger to confronting the Biden administration about its climate change policies. The Pennsylvania Republican pressed Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a subcommittee hearing of the House Appropriations Committee last month about her comments praising China’s environmental policy when she suggested that the public can “learn from what China is doing.”
“Secretary, on March 10, 2023, you said, ‘We can all learn from what China is doing’ — obviously about the environment,” Reschenthaler said in the hearing. “At the time you made that comment, were you aware that 30% of the world’s CO2 emissions came from China?”
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He went on to blast the Biden administration’s double standard of China’s continuous construction of coal power plants in the country while pressuring the shutdown of coal plants in the United States.
Reschenthaler
recently tweeted
that the president “destroyed America’s energy independence — and his agenda is detrimental to Pennsylvania.”
