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Lordstown power plant projected to have $1.45 billion impact, its president says
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The president of Clean Energy Future revealed a few more eye-popping facts and estimates Wednesday as the Trumbull County commissioners approved a 100 percent, 15-year tax abatement for the natural-gas-fueled power plant the company plans to start building in October in the Lordstown Industrial Park.
Clean Energy Future President Bill Siderewicz said the plant will have a $1.45 billion impact on the Mahoning Valley in its first 25 years, counting up the construction, jobs and ripple effects of the $800 million, 800- megawatt plant. It will be on Henn Parkway in Lordstown.
He also told the audience in the Trumbull County commissioners meeting room during a public hearing that Clean Energy Future has agreed to provide asbestos abatement and demolition of a former Lordstown school building at Tod Avenue and Salt Springs Road and build the Lordstown school system a new soccer field and all-weather track.
Those will go in front of Lordstown High School.
The demolition and new sports facilities are in addition to the $18 million in donations Clean Energy Future will give to Lordstown schools during the first 15 years of the project and the jobs that will result.
He estimates that the construction will produce 450 jobs for about three years, then 26 permanent jobs once it opens in May 2018. He expects construction to begin in early October, with the first concrete to be poured by the end of the year.
The project will benefit the village’s bottom line through income tax revenues, Siderewicz said. Construction workers will earn a total of about $80 million, which will pay $800,000 to the village, and the permanent employees will pay about $32,000 per year in income taxes. The abatement eliminates certain property taxes that the company would have paid to the schools and local governments.
Lordstown Superintendent Terry Armstrong said the first money Clean Energy plans to donate to the school is $500,000 at the time of the groundbreaking followed by $500,000 on the first anniversary of the groundbreaking and another $500,000 on the second anniversary. The remaining money will be paid after the plant opens.
The start of the demolition of the former school building will tentatively take place at the same time as the groundbreaking for the plant, Armstrong said.
Boston-based Clean Energy Future still has some hurdles to jump over, Siderewicz said. Among them are a 6 p.m. July 28 Ohio Power Siting Board public hearing in front in the Community Room at the Lordstown Administration Center, 1455 Salt Springs Road.
Another is the adjudicatory hearing at 10 a.m. Aug. 11 at the offices of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, 180 East Broad Street in Columbus.
The public hearing provides members of the public with the opportunity to give sworn testimony and written comments on the project. OPSB members attend the hearing and answer questions about staff reports on the project, according to the OPSB web site. The adjudicatory hearing is a legal hearing that preceeds the Ohio Siting Board making a determination on whether to approve the project.
Siderewicz said Clean Energy Future also still needs to have discussions with First Energy, the local power company, about the placement of the power plant’s transmission lines.
“I think our biggest issue is working effectively with First Energy,” he said. “In order for the lines that would exit our plant to reach the transmission system, we need to go underneath First Energy’s lines, and that’s a technicality we don’t control. We’re hoping the technical engineers at First Energy in Akron will give us the answer we’re looking for, which is the ability to put our lines under their lines.”
Siderewicz said the plant needed to be built in Northeast Ohio to serve the Cleveland area, and Lordstown is the best location of about 15 under consideration. Northeast Ohio needs more power generation because three coal-powered plants will be closed in the coming years — all in the Cleveland area.
Jim Baxter of Weathersfield Township was the only person who spoke in opposition to the project at the public hearing, saying Clean Energy Future is providing benefits to Lordstown and its schools, but heavy equipment will damage roads paid for by residents of the entire county.
Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill countered that Lordstown has no county roads, only some county bridges, and most of the traffic resulting from the project will use the Ohio Turnpike.