At a joint committee meeting of Pennsylvania and Ohio legislators on Thursday, an executive with PJM, the regional power grid to which both states belong, said the closing of coal-fired power plants without new electricity-generating plants to replace them is a major concern, and he suggested that those new plants be energized by natural gas.

According to TheCenterSquare.com, Asim Haque told the lawmakers that federal regulations such as the EPA’s so-called “Good Neighbor” rule, the “Coal Combustion Residuals” rule, and Effluent Guidelines governing wastewater discharge from power plants are “pushing resources off the grid”, and that by 2030 PJM may not have the electricity-producing capacity to keep the lights on.

Jim Robb, the president and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, told the legislators that new regulations that ban natural gas will cause even more problems.  He described it as a “hyper-complex risk environment” to the grid, while noting that right now, the grid is performing better than it ever has.

Indiana County has long been an essential part of the electricity grid for the northeast, but the mere threat of the imposition of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative has already led to the impending closure of the Homer City Generating Station.