When the owners of the Homer City Generating Station announced that it would finally be shuttering by July of 2023 due to competition from cheap natural gas and the costs of adhering to environmental regulations, it signaled a long-anticipated shift in Pennsylvania’s energy mix. The coal-fired power plant was the last in the state — and the largest — to make decommissioning plans, so the announcement gave some in the fossil-fuel heavy Keystone State a sense of relief, both in terms of environmental impact and health effects.
“This will prevent premature deaths, illness & slash CO2 emissions,” former Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger tweeted.
