Just days after President Obama outlined his expanded attack in the war on coal, FirstEnergy has announced that it will shut down two of its coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania, citing compliance costs with current and future environmental regulations. The Hatfield’s Ferry and Mitchell plants represent 10 percent of the company’s total generating capacity, and the closure of these two plants will result in the loss of 380 jobs and extinguish 2,080 megawatts of generating capacity.
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA), who represents the district where these plants are located, lamented FirstEnergy’s announcement, stating, “The front line in the administration’s war on coal is right here in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and the casualties are the factories and homeowners who will pay higher electric bills, as well as the hundreds of utility workers, boilermakers, and miners who will be out of work. With the shutdown of the Mitchell plant and Hatfield’s Ferry, which just four short years ago underwent $1 billion in upgrades, the president is making good on his promise to ‘bankrupt’ anyone who operates a coal plant."
Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY) added, “An advisor of the president recently said ‘a war on coal is exactly what’s needed’ and a war on jobs and affordable energy is exactly what is happening. Sadly, the Hatfield’s Ferry and Mitchell plants and their hundreds of jobs are just the latest victims of the administration’s assault on coal. And with the president’s announced plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions of existing power plants, we are likely to see even more plants close in the coming months."
