FirstEnergy to close six coal-fired power plants
FirstEnergy Corp. on Thursday became the first major U.S. power company to close aging coal-fired power plants because of tougher new air pollution rules.
It won't be the last.
"Increasingly with these older plants, it's more expensive to clean them up than shut them down," said M. Granger Morgan, head of the engineering and public policy department at Carnegie Mellon University.
FirstEnergy announced it would close six plants -- including the 54-year-old Armstrong Power Station in Adrian in Armstrong County -- rather than comply with federal Environmental Protection Agency rules to reduce mercury and soot emissions. The company operates 17 coal power plants.