Renovo Energy Center Project Advances; Environmental Group Mounts Challenge
RENOVO, PA – Developers of the proposed Renovo Energy Center are moving forward with expectations that the approximate $800 million natural gas-to-electricity plant will see construction begin in the second or third quarter of 2021. But a Philadelphia-based environmental group has announced its opposition. The Clean Air Council wants western Clinton County residents to contact the state Department of Environmental Protection to urge denial of a pending air quality permit.
The Clean Air Council recently circulated a mass mailing to Renovo area residents, asking them to mail or email opposition to the long-pending project. A DEP deadline for public response had been set for Nov. 20, but has been continued to Dec. 7, per a request from CAC.
Project developers had gone back to DEP for approval of an amended air permit. An REC official said revisions had been made to improve the plant’s operational flexibility, thereby make its operations more efficient and the plant more attractive to investors. He said REC expects that DEP will review the request and issue the needed permit “based on its merits.”
That process, for a needed “key approval” should take several months, he said, with construction to begin next year. He said REC has “abided by all the rules” and two public meetings had been conducted previously.
He said project approval would be “good news” for Renovo and all of Clinton County. He said plans are for initial construction to be for the first of two turbine units, with 400 to 500 workers onsite on the north side of Renovo during a three year construction period. Some 25 to 30 permanent jobs would result, he said, once the first unit is up and running. He said he is “optimistic” as to the project’s outlook.
Mike Flanagan, President/CEO of the Clinton County Economic Partnership, said the area needs to “move ahead” with the project, providing this statement to therecord-online:
“I believe one of the items getting lost in the mix is that Renovo Energy Center had an air quality permit approved by the DEP some three-plus years ago and this recent revision to the permit, at the request of the developer, uses the same technology as initially approved. There were also two different public meetings held on the project and I can’t recall any opposition presented during those meetings. Everyone certainly has a right to comment, but we need to continue to move ahead with this project which will be a great boost to the local economy, and we need to put our trust in the developers and agencies such as DEP.”
Meanwhile, the Clean Air Council, in its mailer and an online posting, has urged community members to contact DEP to “comment against this large, new source of air pollution.” The CAC claims emissions would “be harmful to human health and the environment” and the plant would emit annually over 100 tons of “volatile organic compounds” which would include “tons of formaldehyde,” classified, according to the CAC, as “a probable human carcinogen.” The Council has a history of opposing gas plants across the state.
DEP spokesperson Megan Lehman said there is no specific deadline on a final decision from DEP; she said the state agency will review all comments received and consider those as part of that decision.
She also provided a copy of a letter from her agency to Clean Air Council executive director Joseph Otis. It came earlier this month from Geoffrey Ayers, regional counsel for DEP. The letter said the proposed project revisions would have “minimal impact on the plant’s air emissions, which will still not exceed the ambient air quality standards.” The letter offered CAC a willingness to meet with the environmental group to “discuss the permitting process and the requirements of the proposal plan approval in further detail.”
The power plant project has been in the works since 2014 and was first publicly announced in 2015.
