Ohio’s Sammis coal plant, saved by House Bill 6, will close or be sold by 2023, owner

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Energy Harbor announced Monday it plans to deactivate or sell the remaining units of its W.H. Sammis coal power plant along the Ohio River in Jefferson County by June 2023, five years earlier than previously expected.

In a release, the Akron-based company said the move is part of its plan to become 100% carbon-free energy generator by the end of next year. Energy Harbor also announced it would sell or close its other coal plant, Pleasants Power Station in West Virginia, by the same deadline.

“Retiring the fossil-fueled plants is a difficult but necessary strategic business decision critical to the continued transformation of our company,” said David Hamilton, Energy Harbor’s executive vice president, chief operating officer and chief nuclear officer, in a statement. “I am grateful for the dedication and work ethic of our employees as well as the strong support shown by their union leaders and the communities where the plants are located.”

Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer has reached out to Energy Harbor spokesmen to ask why the company decided to make the announcement now and whether it intends to close or sell the Sammis plant.

Erin Bzymek, communications director for the Utility Workers Union of America, which represents many workers at the Sammis plant, declined comment Monday.

Energy Harbor already closed four of the Sammis plant’s seven units in 2020; the company notified state officials last year that it intended to close its three remaining units by the end of 2028. The company didn’t give a reason at the time, though it noted that new federal wastewater pollution discharge limits for coal power plants go into effect at the end of 2025.

Four years ago, Energy Harbor — then a FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary called FirstEnergy Solutions — announced plans to fully close the 62-year-old Sammis power plant by 2022. But those plans were reversed in 2019 with the passage of the scandal-ridden House Bill 6.

HB6 didn’t directly subsidize the Sammis plant, but Energy Harbor CEO John Judge said during legislative debate on HB6 that the bill’s $1 billion-plus bailout of the company’s two Ohio nuclear power plans would allow his company to be “economically healthy” enough to keep the Sammis plant running.

State Sen. Frank Hoagland, a Jefferson County Republican whose district covers the plant, also conspicuously asked an Energy Harbor official during the HB6 hearings why he should vote for the nuclear bailout if the company was putting his constituents out of work. Hoagland ultimately voted for HB6.

Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer reached out to Hoagland on Monday for comment on Energy Harbor’s announcement.

The nuclear bailout was repealed last year after federal authorities charged ex-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and five others with using $60 million in FirstEnergy bribe money to secure the passage of the HB6. Householder, along with co-defendant Matt Borges, a former Ohio Republican Party chair, have maintained their innocence and will go to trial next January. Three other defendants have pleaded guilty, and one committed suicide.

Monday’s announcement about Sammis means Cardinal in Jefferson County, Gavin in Gallia County, and Kyger Creek in Gallia County are the only large coal plants left in the state without announced plans to fully close in the coming years. Kyger Creek, along with the Clifty Creek coal plant in Indiana, are subsidized by Ohio ratepayers under a part of HB6 that hasn’t been repealed.

However, the future of the Gavin and Clifty Creek plants remain uncertain. In January, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed denying requests by the two plants to continue using unlined surface ponds to hold coal ash — a residual byproduct of burning coal that, if not properly stored, can contaminate groundwater and the air with toxins such as mercury, cadmium, and arsenic.