PennEnvironment report: Region's power plants among state's top polluters

May 10—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — When Competitive Power Ventures Inc. first announced plans in 2015 for CPV Fairview Energy Center in Jackson Township, a consultant said that the facility "will be one of the cleanest power plants in the world when it comes online in 2019."

Today, an environmental group includes it on a list of Pennsylvania's Dirty Dozen polluters.

CPV Fairview Energy Center, a natural gas-fueled power plant located on state Route 271 near Vinco, is No. 10 on PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center's Dirty Dozen list, released on Tuesday.

The top three polluters on the list are all coal-fired power plants located within 50 miles of Johnstown.

PennEnvironment's list named Keystone Generating Station, located in Armstrong County near the Indiana County border at Shelocta, as the state's top polluter, with 7.2 million metric tons of greenhouse gases released in 2021.

Conemaugh Generating Station near New Florence, Indiana County, came in second, with 6.9 million tons.

Emissions from those two facilities in 2021 would have represented 6% of the state's total emissions in 2020, the report said.

Homer City Generating Station in Indiana County was third on the list, with 4.4 million tons. The Homer City plant is scheduled to close this summer and has been operating at about 20% of capacity since last year, Sierra Club data shows.

"The old adage 'cheaper by the dozen' doesn't apply to Pennsylvania's 12 largest global warming polluters," PennEnvironment advocate Faran Savitz said at a press conference. "The Dirty Dozen's climate-changing emissions are costly to Pennsylvanians and our planet."

Responding to The Tribune-Democrat's request, CPV supplied its own list of 54 Pennsylvania power plants ranked according to output per ton of emissions. CPV Fairview is 54th on that list, compiled from EPA Clean Air Markets Program data. Its emissions rate was 0.37 tons of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour last year, the chart shows.

Mt. Carmel Cogen Inc.'s plant in Northumberland County tops that list with an emissions rate of 3.17 tons of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour last year.

Ebensburg Power Co.'s cogen plant is third on the list, followed by Colver Green Energy's cogen plant, both in Cambria County.

Homer City Generating Station is sixth, Keystone Generating Station is 10th and Conemaugh Generating Station is 11th.

Matthew Litchfield, CPV's director of external and regulatory affairs, said that CPV Fairview operates almost continuously because of its efficiency. The older plants, such as Keystone and Conemaugh, are only put online when demand is high.

"It is a highly efficient plant and operates frequently, which displaces the need for older, higher-emitting facilities to operate and actually helps the state avoid a significant amount of CO2 emissions," Litchfield said of CPV Fairview. "By way of analogy, if you drive a new Prius all year, you are going to produce more cumulative emissions than from the gas guzzler you left at home, but that is hardly a bad thing."

PennEnvironment stressed the growing effects of global warming, which the group says include storms, flooding and drought.

"It isn't all bad news," Savitz said. "The good news is we have the technology and policy tools at our fingertips to rein in pollution from these facilities and transition to cleaner sources of energy."

He said new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations should require all power plants to "rapidly and dramatically reduce emissions" while the state expands renewable energy production, with a goal of 30% of the state's electricity coming from renewable sources by 2030 and continuing until it's 100%.

He pointed to federal grants available through the Inflation Reduction Act that can be used for projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"While Pennsylvania is currently a big part of the problem when it comes to global warming, with simple policy and technical tools, the Keystone State could be a climate leader instead of a climate lagger," Savitz said.

Pennsylvania ranks fourth among U.S. states in total greenhouse gas emissions, behind Texas, California and Florida, the report showed.

Power plants account for 29% of the state's emissions, behind only industry with 31% of total emissions. Transportation is third among economic sectors, accounting for 22% of emissions.