The operating permit for Connecticut’s lone coal-fired power plant in Bridgeport was renewed yesterday, after the state received record amounts of public comment.
No one expected the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to deny a permit renewal for the Bridgeport Harbor Coal Plant.
Still, more than 150 people attended a public hearing on the issue in May and more than a hundred local businesses in Bridgeport have publicly supported closing the plant.
Some environmental advocates were hoping that the DEEP’s renewal might at least address some of the issues with child asthma and air pollution they say the coal plant is causing.
The DEEP says it only has the authority to decide whether the coal plant, operated by the New Jersey-based company PSEG, is following federal and state rules. Advocates say they plan to take up their case against the plant with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which has 45 days to review the DEEP’s permit renewal.
For now, it’s clear economics are already taking their toll on the plant. Tightened regulations on emissions from coal plants, along with rock-bottom natural gas prices, have caused PSEG to significantly scale back activity at the plant. During the six months this year for which data was available, the plant operated a total of 333 hours – or less than 14 days. For WNPR, I’m Neena Satija.
Read more in the Connecticut Mirror.
