FirstEnergy closing coal-fired power plants in Ohio, cites impact of environmental regulations

AKRON, Ohio - FirstEnergy will close six older coal-fired power plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland by September 1 due to environmental regulations.

Bay Shore Plant, Units 2-4, in Oregon, Ohio; Eastlake Plant; Ashtabula Plant; Lake Shore Plant, Cleveland; Armstrong Power Station, Pennsylvania; and R. Paul Smith Power Station, Maryland are the six plants that will be retired.

Eastlake Mayor Ted Andrzejewski said the news is devastating for his city. "It will cost us a total of $600,00 in lost tax revenue. We had to lay off 24 employees because of state budget cuts. Now, the hits keep coming. It's another example of government regulation interfering with business operation ands it's costing jobs."

In all, 529 employees will lose their jobs. Existing severance benefits will apply to those who are eligible, and some affected may be able to apply for open positions at other FirstEnergy facilities.

“This decision is not in any way a reflection of the fine work done by the employees at the affected plants, but is related to the impact of new environmental rules,” said James Lash in a news release, president of FirstEnergy Generation and chief nuclear officer.

The company said the decision to close the plants is based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which were recently finalized, and other environmental regulations.

“We recently completed a comprehensive review of our coal-fired generating plants and determined that additional investments to implement MATS and other environmental rules would make these older plants even less likely to be dispatched under market rules. As a result, it was necessary to retire the plants rather than continue operations,” explained Lash in the release.

The plants being retired served mostly as peaking or intermediate facilities, generating, on average, 10 percent of the electricity produced by the company over the past three years.

FirstEnergy is finalizing MATS compliance plans for its remaining coal-fired units.

When the six coal-fired plants are removed from FirstEnergy’s competitive generating fleet, more than 96 percent of the power provided will come from resources that are nonor low-emitting, including nuclear, hydro, pumped-storage hydro, natural gas and scrubbed coal units.