The Department of Environmental Protection Thursday announced it has approved an air quality plan approval for Moxie Freedom Energy, LLC of Virginia to construct and operate a 1050-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant in Salem Township, Luzerne County.

The approval was granted by DEP’s Air Quality Program on September 1, 2015.

“The application received a thorough review by the Department and we determined that Moxie’s proposal satisfies applicable emissions control requirements, including use of Best Available Control Technology and Lowest Achievable Emission Rate”, said Mike Bedrin, Director of DEP’s Northeast Regional Office in Wilkes-Barre. “This plant will also have emissions testing, recordkeeping and continuous emission monitoring requirements to assist DEP in monitoring emissions from the facility to help ensure compliance.”

Moxie Freedom submitted an air quality plan approval application to DEP on October 6, 2014. The company plans to utilize a combustion gas turbine and a steam turbine to produce electricity. Each combined turbine and a duct burner will exclusively fire pipeline-quality natural gas.

The burners will be equipped with selective catalytic reduction to minimize nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and oxidation catalysts to minimize carbon monoxide and volatile organic compound emissions.

The project will be capable of producing 1050 Megawatts (MW) of electricity, which will then be distributed to the power grid for use.

DEP published a notice of receipt of the application in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on January 24, 2015 and asked for public comment.

DEP then published a notice of the intent to issue a plan approval in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on May 30, 2015, again asking for public comment on the project.

A public hearing on the air quality plan approval was held on July 7 at Berwick High School and was attended by Representatives from DEP and Moxie Freedom, LLC.

During the hearing DEP took testimony from residents regarding the plan approval and afterward it prepared a comment/response document to address the public comments it received about Moxie’s proposal.

Copies of the plan approval and comment/response document are available online.

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9/21/2015