Proposed coke plant at risk

By JOE GORDEN and SUSAN EVANS
sevans@tribdem.com

HARRISBURG October 04, 2005 10:50 pm

— Permit delays and environmental challenges are costing an ambitious coal-to-coke project planned for near Ebensburg a $3.5 million state grant after the deadline to use the money expired.
Now, state and Cambria County officials fear that more delays, along with falling prices in the coke market, will jeopardize the massive $60 million project and the 750 permanent jobs it would create.
But officials at the Sunoco Inc. division that would build and operate the plant maintain they still intend to proceed and the project is on hold – not dead.
The grant request formally was withdrawn Tuesday before the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority board of directors at its meeting in the Rachel Carson State Office Building in Harrisburg.
An environmental group, Penn Future, is challenging that the plant’s permit was issued a day before changes took effect that would have required stricter emissions reductions.
State Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty and state Sen. John Wozniak, D-Johnstown, both cited Penn Future’s court challenge and a plunge in coke prices from $400 to $160 a ton as reasons for the obstacles and delays.
“The company has indicated that they were not prepared in this time frame to make a final decision with regard to the project,” McGinty said. “But they had very definitely communicated that they had not made a final decision, either, in the opposite direction.
“That is, they have not made a decision not to proceed with the project.”
Wozniak said he fears permit delays that triggered the loss of the grant could kill the plant.
And at the meeting and in subsequent interviews, Wozniak blamed Penn Future.
“Penn Future, anytime you want to create 1,400 jobs in my district, you are welcome to come,” Wozniak said. “Any other time, I’d appreciate it if you would stay out.
“I have no question in my mind that a protracted lawsuit was also a factor in the decision by this company not to move into Johnstown and the Ebensburg-Altoona-Northern Cambria environ,” he added. “Three steps forward, two steps back. We’re not going to give up.”
Penn Future representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
SunCoke officials said the grant loss is a temporary – but not major – setback to the project.
“We have not taken the project off the table. It is merely on hold,” project engineer Tim Wojtowicz said from his office in Knoxville, Tenn. “We are just waiting to see what happens, and we’re continuing to pursue the appeal.”
McGinty stressed that the coal-mining portion of the huge project, in which Amfire Mining of Latrobe has already begun bringing coal out of the Bethlehem Reserves, is continuing.
“They are fully committed to proceeding with the mining-development aspects,” she said.
As word of the Harrisburg meeting filtered back to Cambria County Tuesday afternoon, officials expressed concern and worry that plans for the coke plant could be in danger.
Blasting what he called “exaggerated scare tactics used by environmentalists,” P.J. Stevens, Cambria County’s president commissioner, said he remains hopeful that Sunoco will pursue its permit.
Ron Budash, a prime mover in bringing the coke plant to Ebensburg before he retired as executive director of the county’s Industrial Development Authority, said a failed plan would be a “missed opportunity for Cambria County.”
“When people come out of the woodwork and oppose something and disseminate a lot of disfactual information and it snowballs, this is what happens,” he said. “There’s no turning back. There are too many places in America who would welcome them with open arms.
“The environmentalists fighting this are carpetbaggers who are interfering with the local economy.”
Cambria Township Supervisor Robert Shook said he will be disappointed if the coke plant is not built.
“A lot of people have been counting on these jobs coming here,” he said. “Like I’ve said before, the cogeneration plants are good neighbors.”
Ron Repak, executive director of Johnstown Redevelopment Authority, said the grant loss was a temporary setback and not unexpected.
“No final decisions have been made yet,” he said.