Renewed support from local officials for Renovo Energy Center proposal
LOCK HAVEN, PA – Clinton County Commissioner Miles Kessinger announced Monday the county commissioners at their Thursday voting session plan to approve a resolution of support for the natural gas-to-electricity plant proposed for Renovo.
That action will be the most recent show of renewed local support for the billion-dollar plant for Renovo’s northside, first proposed in 2014 but stalled in recent years through challenges from environmentalists.
Renovo Borough Council, a longtime project supporter, went on record again through a resolution at its April meeting in expressing “its continued support of the Renovo Energy project with the belief that the project is in the economic, environmental and general best interest of the citizens of Renovo Borough and the surrounding communities.”
The resolutions come as supporters gathered recently with Renovo Energy Center principals in Lock Haven. Asked about the recent shows of support, Mike Flanagan, President/CEO of the Clinton County Economic Partnership, said, “We again appreciate the renewed support of our elected officials for the Renovo Energy Center project.
After meeting with REC recently, we felt renewing the support for the project was something that was meaningful, given the legal process to halt the project being followed by three groups that are based well away from Renovo. REC remains optimistic that this project will come to fruition, and we welcome the vast investment, construction jobs and permanent positions this power plant will bring to a vacant site.”
The Clean Air Council has been among the project opponents and while the Renovo council resolution did not mention the Philadelphia-based environmental agency by name, its resolution said “the viability of the project has been jeopardized by three outside organizations, none of which have strong ties” to the Renovo area.
The borough resolution also says construction of the generation plant would be in the economic best interest of the Renovo area, “a productive use of the vacate Industrial Park site,” and “provide a significant source of revenue” for Renovo, the county and the Keystone Central School District.” It also says the project would be “in the environmental best interest…as the project will address the contamination of the existing Industrial Park.”
The proposed site is the old Pennsylvania Railroad yards, sitting empty in recent decades after multiple firms had used the buildings there after the railroad pulled out well over half a century ago.
As for the environment, the resolution says the project will involve displacing more polluting forms of energy generation and says the state Department of Environmental Protection is requiring that Renovo Energy “restore and enhance sensitive areas to offset impacts from the construction…(to) include enhancing wetlands near Brewery Run and along 2400 lineal feet of Kettle Creek and reforesting area in Sproul State Forest.”
There has been limited Renovo area opposition to the project to this point. There had been one vocal opponent, Maureen Ruhl, who had run for a seat on Renovo borough council last November but was unsuccessful in her effort.
