FirstEnergy to Close Pa. Coal-fired Plant and Five Others

FirstEn­ergy says new fed­eral envi­ron­men­tal rules would make the Arm­strong Power Sta­tion, in Adrian, Pa., too costly to run. The new rules, recently final­ized by the EPA, give exist­ing power plants four years to com­ply. But FirstEn­ergy plans to shut the the six plants by Sep­tem­ber 1.

The Mer­cury and Air Tox­ics Stan­dards (MATS) set new lim­its on the release of tox­ins such as mer­cury, arsenic and nitro­gen oxide. Power plants are now the worst offend­ers when it comes to these emis­sions. The EPA says 40 per­cent of coal-fired plants nation­wide do not have updated tech­nol­ogy used to lower emissions.

The move was cheered by envi­ron­men­tal groups like the Sierra Club.

“Above all, this is a win for pub­lic health and for fam­i­lies who have been breath­ing pol­luted air from these out­dated plants,” said Bruce Nilles, Senior Direc­tor of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal cam­paign. “Today’s news is part of a national trend of clean energy replac­ing coal. The writ­ing is on the wall for the coal indus­try. With the cost of coal ris­ing and clean energy prices plum­met­ing, coal’s mar­ket share is shrink­ing fast.”

A recent report from the Energy Infor­ma­tion Agency says the nation’s reliance on coal will con­tinue to decline.

The other planned clo­sures include four plants in Ohio and and a plant in Mary­land. FirstEn­ergy says 529 employ­ees will lose their jobs. The com­bined capac­ity of the six plants is 2,689 megawatts of power.