Bridgepoint-owned ECP pledges to keep operating 50-year-old, polluting coal plant indefinitely
December 18, 2024
Energy Capital Partners (ECP), a unit of private equity firm Bridgepoint, is in the process of acquiring a portfolio of power plants including the 50-year-old James M. Gavin Power Plant, one of the highest emitting, dirtiest and deadliest coal-fired power plants in the United States.
In a recent filing with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Energy Capital Partners pledged to keep operating 50-year-old, heavily polluting coal plant indefinitely, stating “ECP and Javelin expect that the Gavin facility (and the facilities owned by the other Lightstone Public Utilities) will continue to operate for so long as they are legally able to do so on an economic basis.”
The firm added, “regarding a secondhand, unnamed source’s speculation regarding plans to retire the Gavin facility, ECP and Javelin confirm that there are no such plans.”
Media:
The Gavin Power Plant emitted 14.7 million tons of CO2 last year, making it one of the highest emitting power plants in the US.[1] The plume of toxins emitted by the plant have major public health impacts because it is upwind of major metropolitan areas across the eastern US. Modeling by the Sierra Club found Gavin to be the nation’s deadliest coal plant, causing an estimated 244 premature deaths each year from particulate emissions.[2]
The Private Equity Stakeholder Project and the Sierra Club in September sent a letter to Bridgepoint and ECP asking that prior to closing the acquisition, Bridgepoint and Energy Capital Partners commit to retire the Gavin Power Plant by no later than 2028.
Bridgepoint’s September 2023 announcement of its acquisition of Energy Capital Partners noted that ECP “operates across North America in an expanding subsegment of infrastructure investing which stands to be a key contributor to and beneficiary of the global decarbonisation effort…”[3]
Bridgepoint’s September 2023 presentation called ECP “A market-leader in electrification, decarbonisation and sustainability-focused added value investing.”[4]
Yet just weeks after Bridgepoint’s acquisition of Energy Capital Partners closed[5], ECP entered into an agreement to acquire one of the highest emitting coal-fired power plants in the US.
The General J Gavin Coal Plant is an outlier among other similar coal plants slated for closure. The Gavin Coal plant turns 50 this year, and now operates on borrowed time.[6] Since 2000, the average age for retirement of coal-fired generating units has been 50 years.[7] Experts broadly agree that as coal-fired power plants age, operation and maintenance expenses increase while performance decreases.[8]
The 2024 Private Equity Climate Risks Scorecard, released in October, noted that Energy Capital Partners, which owns over 60 gas-fired power plants, is ranked the number seven worst greenhouse gas (GHG) polluter by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Greenhouse 100 Polluters Index.[9] These gas plants alone are responsible for an estimated 46.5 million metric tons of CO2e annually.[10]
[1]“What EPA’s carbon rule means for the highest-emitting coal plants,” Energy & Environment News, May 22, 2024.
[2]“Out of Control: The Deadly Impact of Coal Plant Pollution,” Sierra Club, February 2023.
[3]“Bridgepoint adds $20bn infrastructure strategy, as ECP joins platform to build €57bn global alternatives asset manager,” September 6. 2023.
[4]“Executing on strategy: Adding a third growth pillar,” Sept 6, 2023.
[5]“Bridgepoint announces closing of ECP transaction,” Aug 20, 2024.
[6]“The top 10 emitting power plants in America,” Energy & Environment News, Aug 23, 2022.
[7]“Private Equity in PJM: Growing Risks for Communities,” Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, December 2023.
[8]“Nearly a quarter of the operating U.S. coal-fired fleet scheduled to retire by 2029,” US Energy Information Administration, Nov 7, 2022.
[9] Corporate Toxics Information Project,“Greenhouse 100 Polluters Index (2023 Report, Based on 2021 Data),”
Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, 2023, https://peri.umass.edu/green-
house-100-polluters-index-current
[10] This emissions estimate was calculated by applying average capacity factors for gas-fired power plant in the
United States from EIA data and EPA eGRID emissions factors for gas-fired power plants.
