Credit: Google Maps
A power plant in Falls Township has been listed as one of the largest climate polluters in Pennsylvania.
Advertisements
The Fairless Energy Plant, which sits in the former U.S. Steel complex, is the ninth-highest emitter of greenhouse gases in the state.
According to federal data reviewed by the nonprofit PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center, the Fairless Energy Plant emitted the carbon dioxide equivalent of more than 600,000 typical passenger vehicles driven for one year.
The list ranked the plant as the top climate polluter in the Philadelphia area.
Advertisements
The plant sells produced power to PJM, which operates the grid for Pennsylvania Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington D.C.
The Fairless Energy Plant was owned by Dominion Energy for many years. It was sold to Edgewater Generation in December 2018.
Advertisements
Edgewater Generation didn’t comment on the release of the list.
According to data online, the plant became operational in 2004.
Read the full PennEnviroment Report
The PennEnvironment report said the state needs to accelerate the transition to clean, renewable energy and remain in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which works with 11 states to cut carbon pollution from power plants.
Advertisements
The rest of the “Dirty Dozen” were outside of the Philadelphia area, with the largest producer of climate pollution being in Armstrong County.
The twelve facilities listed in the report released nearly 46 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses in 2021. The total is the equivalent of 18 percent of the state’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2020.
Advertisements
“The old adage, ‘cheaper by the dozen’ doesn’t apply to Pennsylvania’s 12 largest global warming polluters,” said PennEnvironment spokesperson Stephanie Wein. “The Dirty Dozen’s climate-changing emissions are costly to Pennsylvanians and our planet.”
PennEnvironment said in a statement they plan to ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to “finalize the strongest possible standards to cut carbon emissions from power plants.”
Advertisements
The EPA could release a new draft rule to cut down on power plant pollution as soon as this week.
Advertisements
Report a correction via email | Editorial standards and policies
