Tell the Ohio EPA: No air permit for a huge gas plant next to Buckeye Lake

You might remember a couple of months ago when we asked you to file a public comment on a 1350 MW gas plant planned to go next to Buckeye Lake.

Now the developers of that gas plant are applying for an air pollution permit from the Ohio EPA, and we have 10 days to tell them no.

Please use our sample text below to file a comment telling the Ohio EPA not to issue an air permit to the Fairfield Energy Center. Just click on the link below to file a comment:
https://ohioepa.commentinput.com/index.cfm?id=RJAbKYcFh

At 1350 MW, the Fairfield Energy Center would be one of the largest gas combustion plants in Ohio – all to power a Vantage data center.

It would go just one mile from the village of Millersport on Buckeye Lake. Immediately next door is Buckeye Lake State Park, Ohio’s first state park, and Cranberry Bog Nature Preserve, the only known floating island of sphagnum moss in the world.

The Fairfield Energy Center would generate power by burning gas in 40 simple cycle turbines. This would emit a long list of pollutants each year, including up to:

• 6,629,795 tons of greenhouse gas (CO2e) – as much as the city of Pittsburgh!
• 284 tons of fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
• 436 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx)
• 656 tons of carbon monoxide (CO)
• 71 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2)
• 202 tons of volatile organic chemicals (VOCs)

Here is a direct link to the Ohio EPA comment form for Fairfield Energy Center. If clicking the link does not take you there, try copying and pasting it into your browser.
https://ohioepa.commentinput.com/index.cfm?id=RJAbKYcFh

Simple cycle turbines are not the Best Available Technology for gas plants — but Ohio regulations say gas plants don’t need Best Available Technology if they emit less than 10 tons per year of certain pollutants. As you can see, Fairfield Energy Center would emit many times more of each pollutant than 10 tons per year.

Yet the Ohio EPA is proposing to issue an air permit anyway, on the grounds that each individual gas turbine emits less than 10 tons per year of each pollutant – even though the permit is for a total of 40 turbines!

Please click on the link here and use our sample text below to file a public comment asking the Ohio EPA to deny the air permit for Fairfield Energy Center.
https://ohioepa.commentinput.com/index.cfm?id=RJAbKYcFh

Public hearing set

The Ohio EPA will hold a public hearing on the air permit where you can testify in opposition. Here is the date and location:

Tuesday, November 10, 2026
6 p.m.
Millersport Elementary Auditorium
11850 Lancaster St.
Millersport, OH 43046

You can read your written comment, or say something different. The key is to let the Ohio EPA know you want clean air and oppose this polluting gas plant.

The deadline to file your written comment is Thursday, November 12, at 11:59 p.m.

Please file a public comment asking the Ohio EPA to deny the air permit for the Fairfield Energy Center.
https://ohioepa.commentinput.com/index.cfm?id=RJAbKYcFh

Thanks so much for your advocacy on behalf of Ohioans and our natural world. You can use the information above to write your comment, or find a sample comment below.

Sample Comment

Please edit this text to explain why this issue matters to you. Then submit your comment at https://ohioepa.commentinput.com/index.cfm?id=RJAbKYcFh

Dear Andrea Moore:

I am writing to ask you to deny Draft Air Permit P0140492 for the 1350 MW Fairfield Energy Center, proposed to power a Vantage data center just one mile from Buckeye Lake.

If approved, the Fairfield Energy Center will include 40 simple cycle turbines. This equipment is not the Best Available Technology. Simple cycle turbines are less efficient and more polluting than combined cycle turbines typically used in a major gas plant.

According to its air permit application, the Fairfield Energy Center would emit a long list of pollutants annually, including up to:

– 6,629,795 tons of greenhouse gas (CO2e)
– 284 tons of fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
– 436 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx)
– 656 tons of carbon monoxide (CO)
– 71 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2)
– 202 tons of volatile organic chemicals (VOCs)

Yet your draft permit excuses the Fairfield Energy Center from the requirement to use Best Available Technology on the grounds that each individual gas turbine will emit less than 10 tons per year of each of these pollutants.

That is a misreading of OAC Rule 3745-31-05, which is about a permit-to-install for the entire facility, not each individual piece of equipment.

It is critical that we get this right. Almost 14,000 people live within five miles of this gas plant, including almost 2500 children and 2800 senior citizens. They deserve to breathe clean air.

Finally, draft air permit P0140492 does not consider the most prevalent pollutant from the Fairfield Energy Center: over 6.6 million tons per year of greenhouse gas pollution – as much as the entire city of Pittsburgh.

Because regulators have ignored greenhouse gas emissions for decades, the world is now at the tipping point of a runaway climate crisis. If we continue to ignore climate-warming greenhouse gas pollution, extreme weather disasters will only get worse.

Please deny the air permit application for the Fairfield Energy Center until the developer can use the actual Best Available Technology, meaning combined cycle turbines, or better yet, renewable energy that does not damage human health or drive the climate crisis.

Thank you for considering my comment.