RENOVO, Pa. — The old Renovo Rail Yard is where Bechtel Corporation, a company based out of Virginia, planned to build a more than $1,000,000,000 natural-gas-fired electric generating power plant.
"Renovo was chosen primarily because of the nearby Susquehanna River, the gas is near there also, and the power grids are up there that can supply to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and New York," said Mike Flanagan of the Clinton County Economic Partnership.
But just last week, Bechtel canceled that plan. The company cited years of appeals from environmental groups, including the Clean Air Council in Philadelphia.
"This is a type of project that would have put out hundreds of tons of dangerous pollutants per year," said Alex Bomstein, the legal director for Clean Air Council.
The plant had been in the works since 2015. Both Clinton County Economic Partnership and Renovo borough saw the plant as a benefit for the local economy and infrastructure.
"Our roads need done, we have buildings that need to be torn down, and we function on tax base only. You are looking at the school district that lost tax base, the county lost tax base. It is a detrimental thing," said Renovo Mayor Gene Bruno.
"For three years, we would have had 500 plus or minus construction workers coming here to build the facility that would have stayed here, ate at our restaurants, used our hotels and etc.," added Flanagan.
However, the Clean Air Council says it found the health risks associated with the plant would have had a negative effect on the economy.
"There would be literally billions of dollars of economic harm on third parties in Pennsylvania. Through health impacts and through people prematurely dying because of the pollution," added Bomstein.
Renovo mayor Gene Bruno says it is now back to square one when trying to figure out how to find funding to rebuild his community.
"I think the town is resilient, and the county is resilient, everybody will put their heads together, and we will try to do something. But to come up with the number in the tax base we had laying right in front of us is going to be very difficult," Bruno said.
As for the old rail yard, where the power plant would have been built, there are currently no definite plans for what to do with it.
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