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FirstEnergy to close 3 aging power plants in W.Va.

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The Associated Press Updated 2:01 PM Wednesday, February 8, 2012

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — FirstEnergy Corp. announced Wednesday it will shut down three aging coal-fired power plants in West Virginia later this year.

The company's Monongahela Power subsidiary will retire the Albright, Willow Island and Rivesville power stations by Sept. 1, affecting a total of 105 workers.

Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy attributed the shutdowns to new federal environmental regulations that are designed to reduce emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal- and oil-fired plants.

FirstEnergy said the three plants' total generating capacity is about 3 percent of the electricity produced by the company. Over the past three years, they generated less than 1 percent of the company's electricity and served mostly as peaking facilities.

Six coal-fired power plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland also will be retired.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin called the closures another example of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hurting Appalachia with "short-sighted" rulings and urged the agency to "review the entire impact of their decisions — from environmental to economical."

"When the EPA adopts regulations, they continue to fail to take into account the real-life effects these rules have on hard working Americans" like those at the FirstEnergy plants, he said.

But the Sierra Club praised the announcement and said that pollution from coal-fired power plants contributes to respiratory illnesses, asthma attacks, heart disease and cancer. It estimates closure of the West Virginia plants will prevent approximately 40 premature deaths, 64 heart attacks and 620 asthma attacks.

"This is good news for West Virginia because those plants will no longer be polluting our air and water like they have been for 60 years, said Jim Sconyers, chair of the West Virginia chapter.

Bill Price, the Sierra Club's environmental justice organizer, said the company should invest in clean-energy technology and create new jobs to help its workers.

"Closing these old, dirty plants is only the beginning of the responsibility that FirstEnergy owes to the surrounding communities," he said.

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February 08, 2012 06:57 PM EST

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