Clean Air Council Condemns Issuance of Air Pollution Permit for Nation’s Largest Proposed Fracked Gas Power Plant for Homer City Data Center

PHILADELPHIA, PA (November 18, 2025) – On November 18, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued an air pollution permit for the Homer City Redevelopment project, paving the way for what would be the nation’s largest fracked gas power plant to open in Pennsylvania. Although the plant would produce enough electricity to power over three million homes, that power would mostly feed its massive AI data center. Local residents would suffer the consequences of increased air pollution, noise, odors, and compromised drinking water with minimal return benefits, and the toxic air pollution from the plant could lead to the deaths of dozens of people across the country for every year of its operation. This permit was issued in spite of the many speakers at September’s DEP hearing on the project, as well as the 571 comments submitted by the public, strongly opposing (and identifying significant errors in) the proposed plant’s draft air quality permit.

Harrisburg has fallen in line across the aisle to support rapid buildout of AI infrastructure, even though the new power plants being proposed to run data centers in Pennsylvania are almost universally plants that would burn methane from local fracking wells. Science and experience tells us that this new fracking, and these new power plants, would pollute, sicken, and kill people in our region, exacerbate the climate crisis, and drive up the cost of electricity.

Alex Bomstein, Clean Air Council Executive Director, issued the following statement:

“This illegal permit is a death sentence for many of those who will breathe its toxic fumes in Indiana County and across the nation. Rushed-through, riddled with errors, and for what? It’s not to keep our lights on. It’s for New York hedge fund investors and for tech billionaires to get rich off of technology designed to lay people off. Indiana County and Pennsylvania will rise up and defend our health and our lives from this dangerous, pointless plant.”