Cleveland Press

FirstEnergy Corp. announced its plans to shut down four aging coal-fired power plants in Ohio. The closings will result in many of the 500 workers losing their jobs and can also negatively impact local tax bases. Some of the laid-off employees may be considered for open positions at other FirstEnergy locations. Many are also eligible for early retirement.

The Ohio plants that will no longer be operating are the Lake Shore plant in Cleveland, the Eastlake plant, the Ashtabula plant and three older boilers at the Bay Shore plant in Oregon, a city near Toledo. They are closing two others plants in Pennsylvania, bringing the total to six. The company decided to close the plants rather than perform costly upgrades with expensive new equipment.

Even though the power plants will no longer be open, the properties will not be sold. Each plant has large electrical substations that will continue to operate.

Combined, the six soon-to-be-closed plants generate enough electricity to power roughly 600,000 homes. This is double the amount of power produced by the Perry nuclear plant.

The plant closings come on the tails of stricter EPA regulations regarding the emissions of mercury found in coal. The United States EPA issued the new regulations in December that will have a big impact on the use of coal as a power plant fuel. More rules and tighter regulations are expected in the coming months.

Environmental groups were pleased with FirstEnergy’s decision to close the older plants citing that the closures will bring cleaner air and better health to millions.

During Tuesday night’s State of the Union, Obama said that giving all Americans a fair shot is “the most defining issue of our time.”  Obama insisted we must fight for income equality in a time when most household incomes have taken a hard hit. Whether or not you agree with Obama’s policies, its hard argue with him on this. The 2010 Census revealed that Cleveland was the second poorest city in America.

The economy is showing signs of picking up, but for many Clevelanders the signs go unnoticed. According to an economic research analyst, roughly 277,000 jobs have been lost in our region in the last decade. On top of that, Case Western Reserve University released a report that discovered that poverty escalated in the 17 counties they examined from 2000 to 2010. Not a single county witnessed a decrease in poverty.

The recession had a startling effect on middle-class suburban residents. Suburban poverty soared, especially in inner-ring suburbs. Suburban poverty jumped 57.1 percent for the Cleveland area, 46.1 percent for Akron and 73.9 percent in the Youngstown area.

Many middle-class households watched their median income decline or struggled with job losses that propelled them into poverty. Inner-ring suburbs including Cleveland Heights, Euclid and Lakewood faced the biggest blows. However, communities not as accustomed to poverty such as Fairview Park, Brecksville, Rocky River, Walton Hills, Westlake and Strongsville also witnessed increases in poverty.

One bright note of the study showed that poverty had actually fallen among those residing downtown and in Tremont. Both of these areas saw their numbers of affluent residents increase. This news bodes well for breathing new life into our downtown area.