During last week’s House Appropriations Committee budget hearings, State Representative Jim Struzzi questioned representatives of a number of state agencies regarding the impending closure of the Homer City Generating Station.
Struzzi urged the Public Utility Commission to take a more visible role in the debate over the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative; asked the Department of Community and Economic Development why the Wolf Administration never followed through with its pledge of assistance to the Homer City community to deal with the threat of the plant closing; and questioned the Department of Labor & Industry about job losses and the impact of the plant’s closing on the region.
Perhaps most pointedly, the Acting Secretary of DCED told Struzzi that new Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has created a working group to examine RGGI, and that there are “coal plant playbooks” that DCED has created to address the issues of communities affected by shuttered coal plants. Rick Siger told Struzzi that “Our team is on it.”
