Hearings to continue on Lordstown power plant construction

Staff report

WARREN

A daylong hearing Friday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court addressed a dispute between the owners of the Clean Energy Future power plant under construction in the Lordstown Industrial Park and the developer of the proposed second power plant on the same site.

The hearing will resume at 10 a.m. Thursday and also at 10 am. April 17 to finish hearing witnesses.

The issue is whether Judge Peter Kontos will order the owners of the first energy plant to comply with his November order to sign a document associated with the “covenants and restrictions” of the industrial park.

If there is no agreement on the covenants and restrictions, it could prevent the second power plant from being built.

The Ohio Power Siting Board in Columbus on Oct. 4 gave the state’s permission for construction of the second plant, to be called the Trumbull Energy Center. Each project is a $900 million investment and would bring in hundreds of jobs.