Environmental Advocates Call on DEP to Reject Homer City Gas Plant for AI Data Center, Uphold Duty to Protect Pennsylvanians

Environmental Advocates Call on DEP to Reject Homer City Gas Plant for AI Data Center, Uphold Duty to Protect Pennsylvanians

Groups urge DEP to address pressing concerns on application to build the largest gas plant in the country to power data centers

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On Monday, Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, Clean Air Council, Sierra Club, and Earthjustice submitted public comments to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) calling on the agency to reconsider its draft approval of a proposed 4.5-gigawatt fracked gas plant in Indiana County - what would be the largest gas plant in the country. The Homer City Generation project would produce enough electricity for nearly 3 million homes, but instead would be used largely to power a massive data center campus.

The organizations warned that the project would significantly harm nearby communities while offering little economic benefit. If approved as is, the plant would release huge amounts of air pollutants - including ammonia, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter - that cause respiratory and other illnesses. Advocates said the project would emit three times more carbon dioxide than any other single facility in Pennsylvania, moving the state further away from meeting its climate targets under the state's Climate Action Plan. At the same time, the project would provide little economic benefit to the community because both data centers and the gas plants that power them have been shown to create few jobs.

Signatories also raised concerns about DEP's handling of the application and any other agency regulatory actions regarding the project. DEP said it would act as a 'concierge' for companies behind the project, suggesting a troubling willingness to prioritize private industry over its responsibility to protect Pennsylvanians. They called on DEP to uphold its constitutional and statutory obligations and ensure that any future decisions comply fully with the state's constitution and laws.

"If it is built, this facility would be the largest source of carbon dioxide pollution in the Commonwealth - creating carbon pollution without creating commensurate benefits for Pennsylvanians. The Department must consider its obligations as a trustee of Pennsylvania's public natural resources and deny this plan approval," said Jessica O'Neill, managing attorney for litigation at PennFuture.

"Approving an illegal project as deadly as this one would be a massive moral failure on the part of our state government. To heap insult upon injury, the thousands of deaths which would result from the tens of millions of tons of air pollution from this plant would not be in service of keeping the lights on at your home, but instead be for making profits for New York hedge funds and Silicon Valley billionaires. DEP can and must do better for Pennsylvanians," said Alex Bomstein, executive director of the Clean Air Council.

"Building this plant would lock in an egregious amount of climate pollution - it would be capable of emitting more greenhouse gases than all the cars in Pennsylvania," said Tom Schuster, director of the Sierra Club's Pennsylvania Chapter. "It would be one thing if the power went to Pennsylvania homes and businesses, but instead it would mostly just fuel the tech billionaires' AI bubble. Moving this project forward as planned would be reckless, unlawful, and an environmental disaster in the making."

"The Department of Environmental Protection says it wants to 'concierge' the permit for the largest gas plant in the nation," said Charles McPhedran, an attorney with Earthjustice. "But DEP does not exist to serve gas plants. Its mission is to protect the public health of the citizens of the Commonwealth."

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Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people's health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer.