Wednesday, February 19, 2025, 9:26AM |  12°
MENU
Advertisement
Steam from the Cheswick Generating Station, the last coal-fired power plant in Allegheny County, billows into the sky beyond Linden Street, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, in Cheswick.
2
MORE

Carbon pollution from Pa. power plants is rising — and it's not just a pandemic bounce

Stephanie Strasburg/Post-Gazette

Carbon pollution from Pa. power plants is rising — and it's not just a pandemic bounce

After a decade of decline, climate-changing emissions from Pennsylvania’s power plants are on the rise.

Carbon dioxide emissions from Pennsylvania’s electricity generators increased 9.6% between 2020 and 2021, a sharp rebound driven by the economic recovery from the depths of the pandemic, according to figures released last week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Power plants in the commonwealth released 85.3 million tons of carbon dioxide last year, the highest level since 2016.

Advertisement

Pennsylvania’s pandemic emissions bounce is roughly in line with national trends. Power sector carbon emissions were up 7% nationally between 2020 and 2021, because coal-fired generation rebounded as natural gas prices and energy demand increased, the EPA said.

Steam from the Cheswick Generating Station, the last coal-fired power station in Allegheny County, billows into the sky beyond Freeport Road, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, in Cheswick.
Laura Legere
Cheswick Generating Station — last coal-fired power plant in Allegheny County — to be sold for remediation, redevelopment

But over the past two years, Pennsylvania’s trajectory was worse than the nation’s. Last year, power sector emissions in the commonwealth were up 3% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Across the U.S., power plant emissions were down 4% during that period, according to the EPA.

“We have a certain carbon budget, and every year we delay — and particularly every year that we increase carbon pollution — we’re further eating into that budget. That’s going to make meeting our climate goals even harder and even more expensive,” said Rob Altenburg, director of the Energy Center for the environmental nonprofit PennFuture.

The three largest carbon dioxide emitters in Pennsylvania’s power sector in 2021 — Keystone, Conemaugh and Homer City generating stations — are coal-fired power plants in Indiana and Armstrong counties. Six of the top 10 emitters are natural gas power plants built in recent years to capitalize on plentiful gas from the Marcellus Shale.

Advertisement

Pennsylvania’s emissions surge last year was driven by several conventional and waste coal-fired power plants, including Cheswick Generating Station in Allegheny County, that ran more than they had in years, according to the EPA’s data. Cheswick’s owners plan to retire the plant at the end of March.

Waste coal plants have been buttressed, in some cases, by cryptocurrency mining and by recent changes to the state’s alternative energy law that were designed to protect them.

The emissions rise in Pennsylvania over the past two years, meanwhile, was pushed by large new natural gas-fired power plants coming online.

Those additions more than offset the fact that the state’s largest remaining conventional coal-fired power plants are running — and polluting — far less than they did a few years ago, in the face of competition from natural gas, renewables and energy efficiency in the regional power market.

Bill Spence, Co-chairman of Stronghold Digital Mining, gives a tour of the Scrubgrass Power plant where large shipping containers house thousands of bitcoin mining machines on Friday, July 23, 2021.  (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)  #bitcoin0728
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PG SPECIAL REPORT | Burning For Bitcoin: When Pennsylvania waste coal went crypto

Keystone, Conemaugh and Homer City each saw a greater than 30% decline in their CO2 emissions between 2019 and 2021 because they are running well below their full capacity.

Competition from gas was also a major factor in the retirement of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in 2019, which eliminated a significant source of carbon-free electricity in Pennsylvania.

Power sector carbon emissions in Pennsylvania are still well below the peak of 123.6 million tons in 2007. The decade-long decline was largely thanks to new power plants running on cheap natural gas, forcing coal plants out of the market.

But Pennsylvania has likely seen the limit of that benefit, Mr. Altenburg said.

There are only six remaining conventional coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania, down from 23 in 2004. All but one of the plants have announced plans to retire or transition to other fuel sources within the decade. The last, Homer City, said it plans to make a decision by April 4 on whether it will stop operating one or more of its three units in 2023.

“Gas conversions are not going to keep the emissions going down like they have been,” Mr. Altenburg said. “There just isn’t that much coal left to replace.”

The growing role of gas in Pennsylvania’s electricity mix and the still-small part played by renewables helps explain why Pennsylvania’s power sector greenhouse gas emissions rose since 2019 while the nation’s emissions kept falling, he said.

“The trend is not going to be down in emissions unless we bring a whole lot more clean generation online,” Mr. Altenburg continued.

Gov. Tom Wolf has set a goal of reducing Pennsylvania’s total greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050 from 2005 levels and 26% by 2025, in line with international accords aiming to limit catastrophic warming.

To cut power sector emissions, the Wolf administration is finalizing rules to establish a price and declining cap on carbon dioxide pollution from power plants. Under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, known as RGGI, Pennsylvania’s annual power sector emissions in 2030 will be capped 20 million tons lower than 2022 levels.

“Past emissions decreases in Pennsylvania’s power sector do not guarantee future emissions reductions,” Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Jamar Thrasher said. “We need further policy actions, specifically beginning with participation in RGGI, to ensure emissions continue to be reduced to meet the governor’s greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals and mitigate future global climate change.”

The carbon cap and fee plan has faced strong opposition from Republicans that control the General Assembly as well as coal-fired power plant operators and labor unions that work to run and maintain them.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative didn’t prevent backsliding during the recovery from the pandemic. The 10 New England and mid-Atlantic states that were members of the initiative in 2020 and 2021 saw their power sector carbon emissions increase 8% last year, according to the EPA’s data.

Laura Legere: llegere@post-gazette.com

First Published: February 24, 2022, 11:00 a.m.

RELATED
A view of the Cheswick Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant, on April 16, 2020, from Pittsburgh Street on the border of Springdale and Cheswick.
Laura Legere
Comments on carbon-cutting plan show industry divided over Pa.’s energy future
The Cheswick Generating Station is seen from Ruth Alley in Springdale, Tuesday, July 13, 2021.
Laura Legere
New Pa. climate action plan charts path for steep cuts in greenhouse gases
SHOW COMMENTS (17)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
Traffic passes by U.S. Steel in Braddock on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. An activist investor has accused U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt of potential insider trading as the group pressures investors to support its own plan for the iconic Pittsburgh steelmaker, which includes a new board and abandoning a planned merger with Japan’s Nippon Steel.
1
business
Ancora launches ‘Make U.S. Steel Great Again’ campaign, accuses CEO of insider trading
Gov. Josh Shapiro is joined in the broadcast booth by Curtis Aiken before the start of Pitt-Syracuse on Tuesday night at Petersen Events Center.
2
sports
Governor Josh Shapiro aims to make Pennsylvania 'compete' in NIL, bring 'stability' to transfer portal
The WPIAL basketball playoffs are underway.
3
sports
WPIAL boys basketball playoffs: Down go the Highlanders, all the way out of PIAA playoffs
President Donald Trump listens as Elon Musk speaks in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (Photo/Alex Brandon)
4
news
McCormick on board with Trump, DOGE shakeup while Fetterman blasts 'chaos, confusion'
Head coach Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith watch a receivers and defensive backs drill at Steelers Minicamp at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex Thursday, June 13, 2024.
5
sports
Gerry Dulac: Next season’s major decisions loom this week for Mike Tomlin, Steelers staff
Steam from the Cheswick Generating Station, the last coal-fired power plant in Allegheny County, billows into the sky beyond Linden Street, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, in Cheswick.  (Stephanie Strasburg/Post-Gazette)
The Homer City Bears' fifth and sixth grade junior high football team runs drills as the Homer City Power Plant blows smoke in the distance, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019, at the Homer- Center Junior/Senior High School in Homer City.  (Jessie Wardarski/Post-Gazette)
Stephanie Strasburg/Post-Gazette
Advertisement
LATEST business
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story