State policymakers, energy producers visit Shenandoah, discuss rising costs, industry challenges

SHENANDOAH – “It’s not an accident that we’re in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.”

Senator David G. Argall (R-Schuylkill) recognized the gravity of Friday’s Senate Majority Policy Committee hearing at Shenandoah’s Center for Education, Business, and the Arts.

It’s the first time in recent memory that state legislators have held a public hearing in the heart of the anthracite.

It focused on the industry that built this region and fueled the nation: energy production.

“For more than two centuries, northeastern Pennsylvania literally fueled the industrial revolution and helped win two World Wars, we built mines, we built factories, we built railroads, and we built communities just like Shenandoah,” Argall said. “And now, once again, we are standing at a pivotal moment.”

Argall said that, after decades of flat demand, electricity demand is skyrocketing while generation capacity is dropping. The committee convened to seek answers as utility price hikes loom.

“If current trends continue, the widening gap between demand and supply will drive costs even higher, squeezing all of us,” Argall said.

From three panels, policymakers heard testimony from various leaders in the energy sector both locally and statewide, including Alex Brush, general manager of the Gilberton Power Co. and Schuylkill Energy Resources co-gen plants, Jason Kelso with Reading Anthracite, Patrick Henderson with the Marcellus Shale Coalition, and Shelby Linton-Keddie with PPL Electric Utilities.

Senator Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming), chairman of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, Rep. Jamie Barton (R-Schuylkill), and Rep. JoAnne Stehr (R-Schuylkill) were all present for the hearing.

Argall said that Pennsylvania currently produces more power than it consumes but that may not last and is not the case in neighboring states.

“We’re paying for the mistakes of other states and, what’s worse, many of them are refusing to fix their own problems,” Argall said.

Jaret Gibbons, executive director of the Appalachian Region Independent Power producers Association, explained the benefits of the ten co-generation plants his association representes.

The two plants in northern Schuylkill County — SER and Gilberton — are responsible for the vast majority of abandoned mine reclamation in our area as state and federal reclamation funding by-and-large goes elsewhere.

Gibbons said the ARIPPA plants have reclaimed over 257 million tons of coal refuse, improved 1,200 miles of impaired streams, and restored 8,000 acres of mine land.

He said their reclamation efforts save the state at least $290 million annually while generating $697 million in economic activity.

Legislators “should develop policies that protect Pennsylvania’s dispatchable generation and prioritize protecting and supporting its own generators to ensure its generators and ratepayers are not effectively subsidizing neighboring states’ energy policies,” Gibbons said.

Brush echoed similar sentiments to Gibbons.

“Here in the anthracite region, our plants provide something else that is just as important [as power generation,]” Brush said. “They help address an environmental problem that was created generations ago,” referring to the culm banks that dot the landscape.

“Our facilities give that legacy material a protective end use,” he said.

He asked that lawmakers “protect the reliable generating assets that are already here and recognize the unique environmental work being performed by coal-refuse facilities in the anthracite region.”

“Additional generation is most certainly needed,” he added. “Why not fuel the future by further reclaiming the past?”

“Rather than constraining generation, policymakers should encourage the development, retention, and expansion of diverse energy resources capable of reliably serving customers around the clock,” Kelso said, adding that “a reliable electric grid depends on fuel diversity.”

This region was a hotbed of co-generation plant development in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s when the Gilberton and SER plants were built along with the Wheelabrator plant near Frackville, the Northeast Power Co. plant near Lofty, and the Rausch Creek Generation plant near Joliett.

Wheelabrator and Northeast Power both closed in recent years and the plants were razed.

Another member of the local mining industry, engineer Dave Williams representing Rausch Creek, spoke of the regulatory challenges the industry faces from permitting to inspections and more.

He also raised concern for the mining industry as a whole, noting there are only three anthracite deep mines left.

“I hope I haven’t given a eulogy on Pennsylvania deep mining,” WIlliams said.

Regulatory concerns were echoed by Patrick Henderson, representing the Marcellus Shale Coalition and the natural gas industry in northern Pennsylvania.

“Playing bureaucratic whack-a-mole is not easy,” he said.

Henderson also said that, while PJM Interconnection wasn’t a household name years ago and was akin to the “football referee you didn’t know was there,” they are not the issue and are, too, grappling with a challenged policy landscape.

PPL’s representative, Shelby Linton-Keddie, also said Pennsylvania needs more power generation and echoed that, while the state is currently an exporter, that likely won’t be the case and neighboring states who are already importers have no other plan B than to rely on the Commonwealth.

Yaw said the committee is in agreement with much of the testimony presented Friday.

“The most important thing is to get the information out to more people,” Yaw said. “Two years ago, probably 90% of the people never heard of PJM and what it was or thought it was a pajama factory. All of a sudden, it’s become the bad person and it’s an easy target.”

“I really think that explanations like many of the panelists gave today is helpful to everybody involved,” Yaw added. “Hopefully the legislature can come up with a few solutions.”

“It’s very clear we need more energy production and fewer stupid regulations both here in Pennsylvania and in our neighboring states,” Argall said. “From what we keep hearing, their energy policies and all of those states surrounding us that have cut back and cut back on production are driving up our electric bills in Shenandoah.”

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