Testimony on the Plan Approval Only: The Pennsylvania DEP's Release on a Hearing for Turbines at a Former Generating Station

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, DEP, announced in a release dated September 15, 2025, that it "will hold a combined public meeting and hearing to discuss the draft air quality plan approval No. 32-00457A." The draft was submitted by the applicant "for the construction and initial operation of seven combined-cycle combustion turbines (CCs) and up to 10 simple cycle aeroderivative gas turbines (ADGTs)" at a former generating station. The release gives no size for the turbines. It does not say what the plant is for.

The release is not the draft plan approval, which is not reported here. Parts of the release follow, not the whole.

Testimony on the Plan Approval

The release quotes a regional director of the department on what the evening is for. It is a DEP meeting and hearing, the director said, conducted as part of the regulatory process "to specifically talk about the draft air quality plan approval." The community may have questions about other areas of the project, the director went on, "but the DEP will only be receiving testimony specific to this plan approval to help us make a final determination."

The director then named topics outside those areas. "Questions or concerns involving topics outside of those areas, such as natural gas pipelines, data centers, truck traffic, plant construction, and job creation, for instance, will bear no relevance in the determination of this plan approval and will not be discussed." That list is the only place the release names data centers.

A hearing held to the air permit can settle only the air permit. The topics the department set aside, gas pipelines among them, are not settled by it.

The Meeting, the Hearing and Written Comments

"The meeting and hearing will take place on Wednesday, September 17, 2025, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.," the release says, at a convention center. The evening has two parts. The meeting portion is an opportunity for back-and-forth dialogue between the DEP, the applicant and attendees, on questions and concerns "specifically related to the draft air quality plan approval No. 32-00457A." The hearing, which will start immediately after the meeting, "is a formal session designed to receive testimony" on that same draft. Both parts are held to the same draft.

Anyone wishing to present testimony must pre-register "no less than 24 hours in advance of the public hearing to reserve their spot." Anyone unable to attend the hearing may also mail a written statement. Each written comment "must contain the name, address, and telephone number of the person submitting the comments, identification of the proposed permit (specify draft air quality plan approval No. 32-00457A), and a concise statement regarding the relevancy of the information or objections to issuance of this plan approval."

Even a comment sent by mail has to say why it bears on this permit.