Standing-room-only crowd gets detailed look at plan for Homer City natural gas plant

Members of the public got their first detailed look Wednesday evening at what would be the largest natural gas-fired power plant in the U.S. if it’s built: a 3,200-acre project in Homer City, Indiana County.

Representatives from Homer City Redevelopment were on hand alongside officials from local trade unions and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, presenting the project and taking questions from a capacity crowd of more than 600 at the Kovalchick Athletic and Convention Complex at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

The redevelopment corporation wants to build a natural gas plant where seven GE Vernova turbines would convert the gas into energy, in the hopes of powering artificial intelligence and computer data centers.

“I don’t think you can turn on a TV in North America right now without hearing about this project,” said Homer City Redevelopment CEO Corey Hessen, referring to national news coverage of this week’s energy forum in Pittsburgh, where President Donald Trump mentioned the project during a news briefing.

After an initial $10 billion in private investment in the project, the forum also served as the stage to announce that Homer City Redevelopment was entering into a contract for about $15 billion, for EQT to provide the natural gas that will fire the plant.

The most common question project officials have gotten is how local trade unions and skilled labor can get involved. Boilermakers Local 154 Business Agent Shawn Steffee, part of a panel discussion Wednesday night, said he represents 16 local trade unions. He said he has worked before with Kiewit, the Nebraska company that will serve as the construction manager for the Homer City Energy Campus.

“We will be using Pennsylvania local labor on this project,” he said. “We live in your communities, and we have a great skilled workforce here that’s ready to go.”

Steffee said contractors will be able to bid on work contracts through Kiewit.

Homer City Redevelopment Vice President Robin Gorman said the scope of the project should provide a lot of labor opportunities.

“We need every skilled tradesperson around to help work on this,” she said.

Audience questions at the forum centered around a few key topics.

A timeline

Demolition of the former Homer City Generating Station is in full swing, Hessen said.

“We’re working with the (state) Department of Environmental Protection on our air permitting, which will be the gateway for construction to really begin,” he said.

Steffee said he expects the hiring process to be well underway by late fall.

DEP Northwest Regional Office Director Erin Wells said about a half-dozen regulatory programs are working with the redevelopment corporation on permitting.

“In addition, DEP staff will be on site afterward to monitor operations and emissions,” Wells said.

Hessen said he is also meeting with the appropriate groups to develop an emergency management team and plan for the massive campus. The team spans local police, firefighters, hospitals and more.

How much land?

Hessen and Gorman both said that despite rumors that have circulated, the project does not have any eminent domain power and has no plans for any taking of land related to the project.

However, the project’s first two stages — constructing the power plant and then pumping in natural gas to run it — are in service of its third stage, which is attracting a data center or high-powered computing company to set up shop on the campus, to take advantage of up to 4.5 gigawatts of electricity generation.

Hessen said he anticipates announcing who that customer, or customers, might be during the third quarter of 2025.

“Until we select a customer and see what exactly their design needs are, it would be presumptuous to say we know exactly what all will be needed,” he said.

Traffic, environmental impacts

Hessen said some of the early discussions regarding the emergency management plan centered around the traffic impact.

“We’re looking at some commonsense things like not doing our shift change when the school buses are running,” he said.

Project officials are planning to use only two access points for construction traffic — Coal Road and Power Plant Road.

“We’re hopeful to have a plan that addresses as many traffic concerns as possible,” Hessen said. “But there will be some traffic.”

In terms of environmental impact, the project would use about the same amount of water as the former coal-powered plant, according to redevelopment compliance chief Gary Cline, who is also the environmental manager for NRG Energy. NRG operated the Homer City Generating Station when it was in service.

Panelists said they did not have information available about the noise level generated by the final project, but they stressed that unanswered questions from the forum would receive responses posted to the project website, HomerCityRedevelopment.com.

Joe Griffiths, 20, of North Cambria is a member of Local 354, a plumbers and pipefitters union representing skilled laborers in more than a dozen Pennsylvania counties, including Westmoreland.

“I wanted to see what it’s all about,” Griffiths said. “I want to see what the future is going to hold for people in our trades.”

Griffiths said he hopes to be among those hired to perform welding and pipe-fitting work on the project.

Nick Carr, 25, of Blairsville is also with Local 354.

“I’m here to support the local and just try to learn as much as I can about what opportunities will be available,” he said.

“It’s such a huge project, and it’s much more far-reaching than just Homer City,” said Randy Degenkolb, 64, of Marion Center. “I wanted to find out more about all it will entail.”

Linda Jones of Indiana said she was encouraged by what she heard at the presentation.

“I thought it was a good educational opportunity,” she said.