Renovo Energy Center project gets 18-month state expiration date extension

WILLIAMSPORT, PA – A state Department of Environmental Protection permit approval for the proposed Renovo Energy Center project had been due to expire on Friday of this week, but the state agency on Thursday approved an 18-month permit extension until April 27, 2024.

The DEP permit for the billion-dollar natural gas-to-electricity plan had first been issued in April of 2021. But the project has been the subject of litigation from project opponents, principally the Clear Air Council. That issue remains before the state Environmental Hearing Board with some decision not expected until sometime in 2023.

Meanwhile REC backers earlier this year began the process to get the permit expiration date extended and that approval was shared with them by letter on Thursday from Muhammad Q. Zaman, Environmental Program Manager in DEP’s Williamsport Air Quality Program office.

That letter details the revised plan approval and notes several project qualifiers that must be met for an operating permit to be issued. The letter says approval conditions “will be revised at a later date in accordance with the adjudication and final rulings” from the pending appeal of the plan approval.

Updated information from REC was provided to DEP this summer which noted that Marathon Capital, the prospective project financing agency from Texas remains interested in the project but has “suspended activities related to securing and providing project financing” until legal issues are resolved; that according to a second DEP letter from Paul R. Waldman, the state agency’s project manager out of Williamsport.

Waldman also wrote that based on the REC submissions, DEP “found the explanations and justifications for an extension to be substantive and reasonable…therefore, the plan approval merits extension.”

Project developers continue their quest to build the plant on the north side of Renovo, first proposed in 2014.They said earlier this year they look forward to proceeding once the pending appeal matter is resolved.