"ANNAPOLIS, MD – Late Friday night, GenOn Holdings, Inc. announced the retirement of the company’s Morgantown coal-fired power plant located in Charles County, MD on the Potomac River. The company will deactivate the coal plant in 2027. Prior to Friday’s announcement, the 50-year old Morgantown plant was the largest coal-fired power plant in Maryland without plans to cease operating. Further, GenOn announced their support for state legislation in 2021 that will codify a state-wide movement beyond coal at Maryland power plants and establish new support programs for impacted workers and communities.
For half a century working families in Charles County were made to bear the economic, environmental, and public health costs of living next to a toxic polluting coal plant. The plant continues to be a significant source of toxic water pollution discharging toxic heavy metals that can cause cancer, impair brain development in children, and harm the nervous system. Additionally, the plant is a major contributor to smog-forming pollution which exacerbates respiratory ailments and disproportionately impacts children, the elderly, and communities of color. In the past, the plant’s pollution was so severe the NAACP gave Morgantown a D+ for Environmental Justice.
Coal is rapidly declining in today’s energy market because archaic dirty fuels have been unable to compete with more affordable and cleaner renewable energy resources. The industry’s decline has been further expedited by the pressing need to address the global threat of the climate crisis and public health. Over half of the country’s coal plants have retired or announced their retirement plans over the last decade. Maryland entered 2020 with six active coal-fired plants and now five of the six plants have either retired or have announced plans to retire."
The Southern Maryland Chronicle had the story December 21, 2020.
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