A Pennsylvania-based fossil fuel plant was originally slated to shut down back in the spring. But following consecutive emergency orders from the Trump administration, the plant will continue operations well into the fall.
What's happening?
On August 27, the Trump administration issued another emergency order to keep the Eddystone Generating Station up and running, Canary Media reported. Located just outside Philadelphia, the dirty fuel plant remains operational well past its previously scheduled retirement date of May 31.
The new order cites concerns over grid reliability in the Mid-Atlantic region, specifically a potential energy emergency resulting from increasing demand and the retirement of other power generation facilities.
In 2023, the plant's owner, Constellation Energy, stated that despite generating 750 megawatts of electricity, the 65-year-old oil and natural gas-fired plant was becoming too uneconomical to operate. After grid operator PJM Interconnection determined that Eddystone's closure would not impact the grid's reliability, the plant was given its original retirement date.
The Trump administration's first emergency order delaying that retirement was issued on May 30, just before the Eddystone plant's Units 3 and 4 were scheduled to shutter. The Department of Energy directed PJM and Constellation to keep the plant running for a period of 90 days to prevent a potential power generation shortfall.
That original 90-day delay of closure concluded at the end of August, only to be extended by another 90 days as of last month. The plant's retirement has now been postponed until late November.
Why is the delayed retirement of the Eddystone Generating Station concerning?
Energy Secretary Chris Wright stated in the latest emergency order that the conditions had not improved and that the continued operation of Eddystone was necessary to prevent service interruptions such as power outages.
Wright stated that this was "due to a shortage of facilities for the generation of electric energy, resource adequacy concerns, and other causes." The DOE also determined that the order was required to best address what it characterizes as an ongoing energy emergency.
But many have questioned the decision to declare this an emergency at all. Following the issuance of the first order in May, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups filed a motion to argue against the administration's authority in doing so.
Robert Routh, Pennsylvania policy director at NRDC, offered up a pointed critique of the first Eddystone extension. "There is no energy 'emergency' that calls for rash, last-minute action by the federal government to require this inefficient, uneconomic plant to stay open," Routh said in a statement back in June.
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No way 🙅 "Pennsylvania families will now have to cover the costs of this unlawful, unnecessary, and harmful order," he added. "Forcing Eddystone to refuel its supplies of oil and gas and undergo emergency maintenance on a whim will not support grid reliability, but it will hurt consumers."
A spokesperson for grid operator PJM Interconnection recently shared a statement with Canary Media regarding the latest order to keep the plant running.
"PJM has previously documented its concerns over the growing risk of a supply and demand imbalance driven by the confluence of generator retirements and demand growth," the spokesperson said. "Such an imbalance could have serious ramifications for reliability and affordability for consumers."
What can be done?
In its latest order, the DOE tied the need to keep Eddystone operational to high summer temperatures.
"The summer season has not yet ended, and the production of electricity from the Eddystone Units will continue to be critical to maintaining reliability in PJM this summer," the order read. "This need is evidenced by the fact that the Eddystone Units were called on by PJM to generate electricity during heat waves that hit the region in June and July."
Indeed, as noted by PJM, the hot weather led to one of the highest summertime peaks in the last 20 years.
With rising global temperatures driven by the heat-trapping pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels like oil and gas, investing instead in expanded infrastructure to support a wider array of cleaner, more renewable energy options could be seen as a solution promoting grid stability, lowering consumer energy costs, and mitigating the extreme temperatures that can themselves increase power demands.
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