The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved the sale of a coal-fired electricity generator along the Ohio River. The plant is said to be one of the dirtiest in the United States, and its sale from one private equity group to another is raising concerns among environmentalists that its operations won’t become any cleaner.
The groups are heavily invested in the dirtiest forms of power generation and they spent heavily in the last election cycle. That’s raising fears among environmental groups that they’re pushing to roll back regulations in order to make their investments more valuable.
The energy regulatory commission, or FERC, on July 23 approved the sale of the General James M. Gavin Power Plant in Cheshire from Blackstone and ArcLight Capital Partners to Energy Capital Partners, a subsidiary of London-based Bridgepoint.
All four companies are private equity firms, which pool cash from wealthy people and corporations, buy other companies and then sell all or part of them.
The firms have been accused of ruthlessly seeking profit — often by loading their purchases with debt, selling off the most valuable parts, declaring bankruptcy, and walking away.
Last year, companies owned by private equity firms made up 75 of 697 — or 11% — of all corporate bankruptcies, reported the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit watchdog group.
Most — 27 of 48 — bankruptcies involving liabilities of $500 million or more were filed by companies owned by private equity firms, the report said.
Continued private equity ownership of Ohio’s Gavin Plant is particularly concerning to environmental groups because a 2023 analysis by the Sierra Club found it to be the deadliest in the United States.
It estimated that due to the toxicity of its emissions and because of the direction of prevailing winds, the plant causes 224 premature deaths in the eastern United States each year.
It will also cost about $40 million to make the plant compliant with rules regarding the storage of toxic coal ash. Advocates fear that the plant’s private equity owners won’t work to make the plant cleaner.
“It is irresponsible for FERC to approve the sale of the Gavin coal plant to yet another private equity firm, (Energy Capital Partners), with so few conditions, knowing that pollution from the plant causes adverse health outcomes across the eastern U.S.,” Ryan Leitner of the Private Equity Stakeholder’s Project said in a written statement. “It is now incumbent upon ECP and its parent company, Bridgepoint, to commit to responsibly transitioning Gavin away from coal while maintaining reliability.”
Environmental groups have been pushing for the owners of the 50-year-old, 2,600 megawatt plant to convert it to cleaner fuels or retire it altogether.
“Gavin consistently ranks as one of the worst and deadliest coal plants in the country,” Neil Waggoner of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign said in a written statement. “Continuing to operate it with no plan for transition to clean energy is irresponsible. ECP should commit to a plan to end coal burning operations at the Gavin plant.”
Energy Capital Partners didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but it seems unlikely that it would voluntarily retire the plant. Signal Ohio reported last month that electricity prices are spiking in Ohio because of demand from the state’s booming fleet of data centers.
Private equity firms are highly invested in companies that produce or consume fossil fuels. The group Private Equity Climate Risks estimates that private equity-owned companies are responsible for 1.17 gigatons of emissions annually.
And after they spent heavily last election cycle, the administration of President Donald Trump has been removing climate rules. That presumably makes private-equity-owned fossil fuel companies more valuable.
Last month, the Trump EPA proposed to scrap the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 Endangerment Finding, which compels the agency to regulate greenhouse gases.
That’s happening after some in the private equity world supported Trump and his vice president, Ohio’s JD Vance.
Blackstone was the 10th-largest contributor to Vance’s PAC, Working for Ohio, according to OpenSecrets.com, donating $20,000 since 2019.
And Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman in May gave a crucial early endorsement of Trump.
