Renovo Energy Center project remains tied up in state Environmental Hearing Board process

HARRISBURG, PA – The nine-year effort to build a natural gas to electricity plant in Renovo continues through channels before the state’s Environmental Hearing Board.

The Renovo Energy Center project, first discussed in 2014, has been involved in litigation for nearly two years, the Clear Air Council and other environmental groups contesting the proposed billion dollar facility.

The project is now before the state environmental hearing board. Thomas Renwand, environmental hearing board chief judge and chairman, this week issued an order giving the two sides until April 11 to file a joint status report with the board “on the status of settlement discussions.” That order means there is still no full hearing date set, as has been requested by REC. Settlement discussions for the two sides to resolve their differences date back nearly two years. Clean Air first filed its appeal to the original air quality permit approval from the state Department of Environmental Resources in May of 2021.

Clean Air Council is also challenging the state Department of Environmental Resources and REC over DEP’s 18-month extension for the project’s air quality permit, through April of 2024 to build the gas-fired power plant.