Problem

The Huntley Generating Station, one of the last few coal-fired power plants in Tonawanda, New York, had six generating units with over 800 MW of generating capacity. Due to low natural gas prices, the Huntley coal plant slowly became economically uncompetitive in 2005. This badly impacted the city, which was dependent on their tax payments: between 2008-2012, three public schools in the town closed, the school district budget was slashed and the coal plant’s workforce was reduced by 60%. 

93 acres (37,6 hectares) of Tonawanda’s prime waterfront property were left idle by the time the plant closed in 2016, causing a hike in property taxes.

Responses

In 2013, a diverse coalition of teachers associations, labour unions, and environmental coalitions came together to form the Huntley Alliance to organise the town around a transition plan that would protect workers, save the school system, and stabilise the local economy. 

When the coal plant went offline in March 2016, Huntley alliance had lobbied the New York Legislature to create a transition fund that would backfill tax losses and protect jobs. This transition fund, the Electric Generation Facility Cessation Mitigation Fund, allocated around $56 million fund reimbursements of loss tax revenue up until 2025. The plant’s 79 remaining employees were all either retired or transferred to other facilities. 

With the support of The University at Buffalo Research Institute and the Delta Institute, Tonawanda released a detailed long-term plan to build the town’s economy in 2017, which implemented a bottom-up approach involving over 300 residents, 728 community survey responses, and input from 20 local organisations. The plan included immediate and long-term strategies to build the town’s economy, including redeveloping the waterfront district, attracting new industries, and building career pipelines for younger workers.

Find out more: World Resources Institute