XPost: pa.politics, alt.politics.trump, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: democrat-insurrection@mail.house.gov   
      
   https://hotair.com/salena-zito/2025/04/12/reversal-of-fortune-in-homer-ci   
   ty-new-manufacturing-project-a-game-changer-n3801702   
      
   HOMER CITY, Pennsylvania -- Eleven days after the massive smokestacks   
   and cooling towers of Pennsylvania's largest coal-fired power plant came   
   down in a dramatic fashion in this Indiana County village, causing both   
   emotional and economic distress and a sense of hopelessness, Homer City   
   Redevelopment announced that an even bigger natural gas power center   
   would be built in its place.   
      
   The Homer City Energy Campus will be a series of natural gas plants that   
   will power a massive data center campus.   
      
   The emotion coming from hometown boy Shawn Steffee was palpable -- not   
   just because the build will resurrect Homer City, which has seen six   
   generations of Steffees, but also because it will create thousands of   
   good-paying manufacturing jobs for at least the next four to six years.   
      
   "It is a game changer for the region and for the state of Pennsylvania,"   
   said Steffee, the business agent for the International Brotherhood of   
   Boilermakers Local 154, in an interview with the Washington Examiner.   
      
   Steffee said part of what makes this a big deal is that HCR is building   
   up to 4.5 gigawatts of natural gas generation. Homer City will now be   
   the largest electricity producer in the state, and Steffee's members in   
   Western Pennsylvania will be instrumental in building and maintaining   
   the facility.   
      
   Opportunity, Steffee said, has not been available to his members for   
   four years, forcing them to leave their families and communities behind   
   to travel to New Mexico, Washington, Ohio, West Virginia and Tennessee   
   because nothing new was being built in Pennsylvania.   
      
   "What this means for us is, I can bring the boilermakers home back to   
   Pennsylvania. This will be anywhere from a four-to-six-year job. They   
   will need hundreds of boilermakers and thousands of construction   
   workers. This is good for everybody in the building trades," Steffee   
   said.   
      
   "This is a mega, mega project. Everybody's going to benefit, and   
   I am in the process of recruiting new apprentices ... not only   
   for this job but what's coming in the future in my other   
   counties throughout West Virginia, Ohio and here in other places   
   in Pennsylvania," he continued.   
      
   "All we want to do is build new energy infrastructure. We want   
   to be a part of the new industrial revolution of reliable   
   base-load electricity. Whether it's gas, coal, nuclear, we want   
   to be a part of it," Steffee explained.   
      
   "I dunno a damn thing about artificial intelligence, but I sure   
   as hell know how to build power plants," he added.   
      
   The former coal-fired generating station will immediately begin   
   converting into a 3,200-acre natural gas-powered data center   
   campus, which will begin producing power by 2027.   
      
   The project is facilitated by a $10 billion investment from   
   Knighthead Capital Management. HCR made the announcement in   
   Indiana County. Kiewit Power Constructors Company is set to   
   construct the new facility. GE Vernova will be a big partner,   
   providing seven turbines to produce nearly 4.5 GW of power.   
      
   "This is great for my hometown (and) my school district that my   
   family has gone to for six generations of kids. My family still   
   lives there. I still live here in the community, and this is   
   definitely a shot in the arm for a county that's been really   
   economically challenged," Steffee said.   
      
   "I do think that there's going to be a lot of ripple effect jobs   
   produced. The data centers and the construction jobs will be   
   unreal. And hopefully this helps with the load on the grid too.   
   That's a lot of megawatts," he added.   
      
   Steffee, who said he didn't want to get too political, said the   
   emphasis from one campaign on bringing manufacturing back   
   meaningfully in Pennsylvania -- as well as a push for American   
   dominance in energy production -- sent a message to investors   
   and businesses: It was a good time for shovel-ready jobs.   
      
   When visiting Indiana County in September, then-candidate Donald   
   Trump vowed to a packed rally that if elected to a second term   
   in the White House, he would unleash Pennsylvania's energy   
   sector. He pledged to get workers in the key swing state   
   "pumping, fracking, drilling and producing like never before."   
      
   Flanked by energy workers in hard hats at the event, Trump said   
   of untapped natural gas reserves, "We have all of this stuff,   
   more than anybody. We don't use it."   
      
   Steffee agreed that there are political ramifications.   
      
   "It's game on for America first, and we want to be the ones   
   leading the world in data centers, artificial intelligence, and   
   we want the manufacturing," he said.   
      
   The AI data centers need a lot of one thing -- power.   
   Pennsylvania is known for producing reliable base-load   
   electricity. If AI is this country's second Industrial   
   Revolution, Pennsylvania is poised to power this one too.   
      
   "The state of Pennsylvania is the largest exporter of   
   electricity in the country as of right now, and we're sitting on   
   the second-largest natural gas deposit in North America. We've   
   got all these great producers, and they're ready to produce   
   gas," Steffee said.   
      
   "Everybody in the building trades in construction and the gas   
   industry in Pennsylvania; we all take pride in our jobs. We've   
   just been really taking a hammer here for the last four years,"   
   he said.   
      
   Less than a year after his inauguration, former President Joe   
   Biden issued an executive order phasing out the purchase of   
   gasoline-powered vehicles and requiring that the federal   
   government's buildings be powered by wind, solar or other clean   
   energy.   
      
   According to The New York Times, in December 2021, that order   
   directed the government to transform its 300,000 buildings and   
   600,000 cars and trucks and use its annual purchases of $650   
   billion in goods and services to meet its goal.   
      
   The result of that order and the language he and former Vice   
   President Kamala Harris both used around clean energy research   
   and development hurt union and trade workers in the fossil fuels   
   industries.   
      
   Once completed in 2027, it will be the largest natural gas power   
   plant in the United States, surpassing NextEra Energy's main   
   utility, Florida Power & Light's West County Energy Center,   
   which has a capacity of nearly 3.8 GW, according to data from   
   the U.S. Energy Information Administration.   
      
   Steffee and others involved in the announcement said the project   
   will create over 10,000 direct on-site construction-related   
   jobs, a big boost for the trades, and over 1,000 permanent   
   high-paying operations jobs in the technology sciences. These   
   will include jobs in geology, chemistry, engineering and energy   
   infrastructure.   
      
   Kiewit Executive Vice President Dave Flickinger was pleased with   
   how quickly all the stakeholders came together to make the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)