Philadelphia Region’s Dirty Fossil Fuel Plant Mandated to Operate With Weakened Environmental Regulations

We are not in not an energy emergency — the “growing resource adequacy concern” expressed by PJM Interconnection is a result of its own failure to adequately plan and manage the regional power grid, connect shovel-ready clean energy projects, and invest in grid modernization. 

Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s declaration of an energy emergency, which allows PJM and Constellation Energy to bypass fundamental environmental regulations, is a gross abuse of power that should only be reserved for genuine crisis situations.

Eddystone Generating Station, owned by Constellation Energy, includes Unit 3 and Unit 4 which were commissioned between 1967 and 1970. Constellation determined that these units could not compete with cheaper, cleaner energy alternatives and had decided to take these units offline, with   a planned retirement date of May 31, 2025. PJM had approved the plan to close these units, finding that taking these units out of service would not impact the reliability of the power grid. 

This order extends the operation of these unmaintained and uneconomic fossil fuel plants, which means expensive power at a high pollution output. This significantly harms the health of Pennsylvanians living in nearby environmental justice communities and the environment of Southern Pennsylvania. 

PJM must resist the impulse to respond to the false sense of urgency created by the Trump administration on behalf of the fossil fuel industry.  Instead, it must keep its eye on the ball and efficiently shepherd cheaper, cleaner, and faster-to-deploy energy projects through the gridlock of its queue.