Second power plant planned for Lordstown
You might have heard about the construction of a $890 million energy plant currently going on in Lordstown. Now multiply that by two. Lordstown village leaders are expected to announce plans for another power plant to be built in the area. A formal announcement is expected to be made Wednesday. Mayor Arno Hill says Lordstown has what is needed by these smaller electricity companies to turn natural gas into power and make a profit.

LORDSTOWN, Ohio - You might have heard about the construction of a $890 million energy plant currently going on in Lordstown. Now multiply that by two.
Lordstown village leaders are expected to announce plans for another power plant to be built in the area. A formal announcement is expected to be made Wednesday.
Mayor Arno Hill says Lordstown has what is needed by these smaller electricity companies to turn natural gas into power and make a profit.
"There are three reasons why Lordstown is the perfect place: 1. We have main transition lines. 2. We have an abundance of natural gas. 3. The village of Lordstown has three different sources of water, two of which we use exclusively," said Hill.
And who stands to gain the most from the two plants? Maybe everyone in the village.
"The biggest beneficiary are the schools, the amount of money the schools will get. Hopefully down the road all of our residents will see over the next 3-5 years is some sort of property tax reduction," said Hill.
Construction on the first plant won't be completed until 2018 and once that is finished the mayor hopes the same construction crews can move across the street and start the second plant.
The only stumbling block could come from companies like First Energy who Mayor Hill says want to change current government regulations.
"If they get re-regulation, they are trying to put these small plants out of business. They want to be able to build their own plants and they've been lobbying against this since the first plant went up," said Hill.
Mayor Hill says the new plant would require over 500 construction jobs with dozens of full-time plant jobs once it is up in operation.