The coal waste recycling industry is calling on Pennsylvania lawmakers to provide a lifeline. It wants greater tax credits and other help as it struggles to stay afloat. Advocates claim both the local economy and environment are at stake.
Huge piles of coal waste sit at Panther Creek Power Plant ready to be converted into electricity. This co-generation plant is one of 14 in Pennsylvania credited with removing a combined 200 million tons of coal refuse — the debris left behind by the coal mining industry. Panther Creek Power Asset Manager Matt Cochran said, “It’s taken us almost 22 years, almost 24 years right now to solve half the problem.”
These are tough times for the co-generation industry. The demand for electricity is down. Sen. Gene Yaw (R) 23rd District said, “We have such a glut of energy not only in Pennsylvania but in the United States and in the world today which I guess is a good thing but for a lot of people in the energy business that’s a problem.”
At 20 current employees, Panther Creek cut more than half its workforce in the past year. At a news conference Tuesday afternoon at the plant in Nesquehoning, Anthracite Region Independent Power Producers Association, or ARIPPA, urged expanding a new PA tax credit that provided $7.5 million this year. “What we’re asking is that it be increased to $10 million this year and we’re hopeful,” said ARIPPA Executive Director George Ellis.
Industry advocates are also seeking other economic support and regulatory relief or risk going out of business. ARIPPA argues that by risking shuttering the plants, it will leave behind and estimated 300 million tons of coal refuse resulting in either a taxpayer cleanup liability or continuing acidic water and air pollution.
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