Two PA Generating Stations Slated for Closure to Continue to Operate Through 2032 Thanks to DEP Consent Decree

Gov. Josh Shapiro this week announced that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) was seeking final court approval of a consent decree that will allow two generating stations in the Commonwealth to reopen and operate through 2032.  

The Keystone and Conemaugh Generating Stations are both coal-fired power plants having the same operator. Keystone is in Armstrong County and Conemaugh is in Indiana County.

Both plants had been slated to close at the end of 2028, when compliance with stricter federal wastewater and coal ash disposal regulations that were promulgated in 2015 would have become mandatory. When it made the decision to close the plants in 2021, the plants’ operator determined it was too expensive to comply with those regulations.

Increased demand for electricity brought on by data centers has changed the analysis that led to the decision to close the plants.  

Also playing into the plants’ decision to reopen: a still-proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that would allow DEP - as the Clean Water Act permitting authority for the plants - to extend the deadline for the plants to comply with the 2015 federal wastewater and coal ash disposal regulations, provided that DEP finds an “unexpected” change in electricity prices or a surge in demand for electricity has occurred.

Nothing in the Consent Decree purported to alter the plants’ obligations under the air pollution laws and regulations, so, presumably, the plants will operate pursuant to their existing Title V Operating Permits (which you can access here and here). 

Although both plants’ Title V Operating Permits have expired, the plants may still operate under them because the plant operator submitted timely renewal applications (which DEP has not acted on).

“Although the reopening of the plants might help ease the strain on the electric grid, it will be bad for air pollution in areas downwind from the plants,” said GASP Senior Attorney John Baillie. “For 2024, the Conemaugh plant reported 1,508 tons of sulfur dioxide emissions and 1,234 tons of oxides of nitrogen emissions, and the Keystone plant reported 7,322 tons of sulfur dioxide emissions and 1,112 tons of oxides of nitrogen emissions.”  

More information regarding those emissions is available here.