Feb 11, 2014 3 min read

State Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, unveiled legislation Tuesday that would provide protections and parameters when a coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania faces closure.

“Owners of facilities now can simply power down and lock their doors with no clear-cut responsibilities for the shuttered facilities or the impacts on plant employees and surrounding communities,” Snyder said. “The current ‘cut and run’ policies leave too many harms and questions in their wake.”

Snyder said her House Bill 2030 would create a Coal-Fired Electric Generation Deactivation Commission to assess the energy, environmental, economic and community impacts associated with a plant shutdown. The measure would require the owner to remediate a facility and the surrounding area to receive approval to deactivate.

“Too many critical issues are not fully vetted by local or state governments before a deactivation,” Snyder said. “We must do better to ensure power supplies and protect the communities affected by closures.”

Snyder said only the regional electric grid operator, PJM Interconnection, now has oversight when a coal-fired generation facility is slated for shutdown, and that oversight is limited to preserving reliability of the power supply.

“PJM only requires 90 days’ notice when a generator decides to deactivate, and no requirements exist to provide similar notifications to the employees left adrift.”

Snyder questioned PJM’s determination that adequate power supplies existed to allow two FirstEnergy coal-fired generation plants in southwestern Pennsylvania – the Hatfield’s Ferry plant in Greene County and the Mitchell power plant in Washington County – to close last year.

More questions were raised than answered by the regulatory process,” Snyder said. “We didn’t get 10 days into 2014 before PJM asked consumers to curb power use – and again Jan. 27 – when demand soared during cold spells.”

Snyder said the Coal-Fired Electric Generation Deactivation Commission would enable state and local government officials, affected employees, business owners and other stakeholders to participate in public hearings.

“After all the stakeholders have weighed in, the commission would be required to render a final decision concerning the deactivation of a coal-fired electric generation power plant,” Snyder said. “The panel also would be charged with developing employee protections, such as minimum requirements for severance payments and the continuation of health care benefits.”

Snyder said she drafted H.B. 2030 in response to the alarming number of coal plants that have closed recently for a variety of reasons, including abundant natural gas supplies and stringent federal regulations.

“Pennsylvania has a responsibility to ensure that all stakeholders are heard and that all concerns are considered,” Snyder said. “The current safeguards designed to protect power supplies, workers and communities are insufficient.”