## FirstEnergy, Citing Impact of Environmental Regulations, Will Retire Six Coal-Fired Power Plants

Plants Located in Ohio, P ennsylvania and Maryland < j AKRON, Ohio, Jan. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Fi rstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE ) announced today that its generation subsid iaries will retire six older coal-f ired power plants located in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland bySeptember 1, 2012. The decision to close the plants is based on the U.S. Environmental Pr otection Agency Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which were recently finalized, and other environmental regulations.
The total capacity of the com petitive plants that will be re tired is 2,689 megawatts (MW). Recently, these plants served mo stly as peaking or intermedi ate facilities, generating, on average, approximately 10 percen t of the electricity produced by the company over the past three years.
The following plants will be retired: Bay Shore Plan t, Units 2-4, Oregon, Ohio; Eastlake Plant, Eastlake, Ohio; Ashtabula Plan t, Ashtabula, Ohio; Lake Shor e Plant, Cleveland, Ohio; Armstrong Power Station, Adrian, Pa.; and R. Pa ul Smith Power Stati on, Williamsport, Md.
In total, 529 employees will be directly affected. Existing severance benefit s will apply to eligible, affected employees. However, the final number of af fected employees could be less as some are considered for open positions at other FirstEnergy facilities and work locations, and eligible employees take advantage of a re tirement benefit being offered to those 55 years and older.
"This decision is not in any wa y a reflection of the fine workdone by the em ployees at the affected plants, but is related to the impact of new env ironmental rules," sa id James H. Lash, president, FirstEnergy Generati on and chief nuclear officer. "We recently completed a comprehensive review of our co al-fired generating plants and determined that additional investments to implement MATS and other environmental rules would make these older plants even less likely to be dispatched under market rules. As a result, it was necessary to retire the plants rather than continue operations."
The plant retirements are subject to review for reli ability impacts, if any, by PJM Interconnection, the regional tran smission organization th at controls the ar ea where they are located.
FirstEnergy is finalizing MATS compliance plans for its remainin g coal-fired units. Since the Clean Air Act became law in 1970, FirstEnergyand its predecessor co mpanies have invested Pa g e 1 of 4 FirstEner gy , Citin g Impact of Environmental Re g ulations, Will Retire Six Coal-Fired Po

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...more than $10 billion in environm ental protection efforts.
Since 1990, FirstEnergy has r educed emissions of nitrogen ox ides by more than 76 percent, sulfer dioxid e by more than 86 perce nt and mercury by about56 percent. When the six coal-fired plants are removed from FirstEnergy's competitive generating fleet, more than 96 percent of the power prov ided will come from reso urces that are non- orlow-emitting, including nuclear, hydro, pumped-storag e hydro, natural gas and scrubbed coal units.
FirstEnergy is a diversified ene rgy company dedicated to safety , reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric dist ribution companies comprise the nation's largest investor-owned electric system. Its diverse generating fleet features non-em itting nuclear, scrubbed coal, natural gas, and pumped-stor age hydro and other r enewables, and has a total generating capacity of nearly23,000 megawatts.
Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements based on information currently available to management. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainti es. These statements includ e declarations regarding management's intents, beliefs and current expectations. These st atements typically contain, but are not limited to, the terms "anticipate," "potential," "expec t," "believe," "estimate" and similar words. Forward-looki ng statements involve estimates, assump tions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and ot her factors that may cause actu al results, performance or achievements to be materially di fferent from any future result s, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such fo rward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially due to: the speed and natu re of increased competit ion in the electric util ity industry, the impact of the regulatory process on the pending matters in t he various states in which we do business including, but not limi ted to, matters related to rates, the st atus of the PATH project in light of the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (P JM) direction to suspend work on the project pending review of its planning process, its re -evaluation of the need for the project and th e uncertainty of the timing and amounts of any related capital expenditures, business and regula tory impacts from ATSI's realignment into PJM, economic or weather conditions affecting futu re sales and margins, changes in markets for energy services, changing energy and commodity market prices and availability, financial derivative refo rms that could increase our liquidity needs and collateral costs, the cont inued ability of FirstEnerg y's regulated utilities to collect transition and other costs, operation and maintenance costs being higher t han anticipated, ot her legislative and regulatory changes, and revi sed environmental requirement s, including possible GHG emission, water intake and coal combustion residual r egulations, the potenti al impacts of any laws, rules or regulations that ultimately replac e the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) including the Cross-State Air Pollution Ru le (CSAPR), which was stayed bythe courts on December 30, 2011, and the effects of the EPA's recently releas ed Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rules, the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital expenditures that may arise in connection with any NSR litigation or potential regulatory init iatives or rulemakings (including that such expenditure s could result in our decision to shut down or idle certain generating units), the uncertainty associated with PJM's reviewof the company's plan to retire its older unscrubbed fossil units, adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes with respect to our nuclear operations (including, but not limi ted to, the revocation or non-renewal of necessary licenses, approvals or operating permits by the NRC, including as a result of the incident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclea r Plant), issues that could result from our continuing investigation and analysis of the indicati ons of cracking in t he plant shield building Pa g e 2 of 4 FirstEner gy , Citin g Impact of Environmental Re g ulations, Will Retire Six Coal-Fired Po

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...at Davis-Besse, adverse legal decisions and outcomes related to Met-Ed's and Penelec's ability to recover certain trans mission costs through their transmission service charge riders, the continuing availability of generating units and changes in their ability to operate at or near full capacity, replacem ent power costs being hi gher than anticipated or inadequately hedged, the ability to comply with applicable state an d federal reliability standa rds and energy efficiency mandates, changes in cu stomers' demand for power, incl uding but not limited to, changes resulting from the implem entation of state and federal energyefficiency mandates , the ability to accomplish or realize anticipa ted benefits from st rategic goals and our ability to improve electric commodity margins and th e impact of, among other factors, the increased cost of coal and coal transportation on such margins, the ability to experi ence growth in the distribution business, the changing mark et conditions that c ould affect the value of assets held in FirstEnergy's nuclear decommissioning trusts, pen sion trusts and other trust funds, and cause FirstEnergy to make ad ditional contributions sooner, or in amounts that are larger than currently anticipated, t he impact of changes to material account ing policies, the ability to access the public securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with FirstEnergy's financing plan, the cost of such capital and overal l condition of the capital and credit markets affecting Firs tEnergy and its subsidiaries, changes in general economic conditions affecting FirstEnergyand its subsidiaries, interest rates and any actions taken by credit rating agencies thatcould negatively affect FirstEnergy's and its subsidiaries' access to financing or their costs and incr ease requirements to post addit ional collateral to support outstanding commodity positions, LOCs and ot her financial guarantee s, the continuing uncertainty of the national and regional economy and its impact on the major industrial and commercial customers of Firs tEnergy's subsidiaries, iss ues concerning the soundness of financial institutions and coun terparties with which FirstE nergy and its subsidiaries do business, issues arising from t he completed merger of FirstEner gy and Allegheny Energy, Inc. and the ongoing coordi nation of their combined operations including Fi rstEnergy's ability to maintain relationships with cust omers, employees or suppliers, as well as the ability to continue to successfully int egrate the businesses and realize cost savings and any other synergies and the risk t hat the credit rati ngs of the combined company or its subsidiaries may be different from what the companies expect, the risks and other factors di scussed from time to time in FirstEnergy's and it s applicable subsidiaries' SEC fili ngs, and other si milar factors. The foregoing review offactors should not be construed as exhaustive . New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for manag ement to predict all su ch factors, nor assess the impact of any such factor on FirstEnergy's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to di ffer materially from those contained in any forward-looking statemen ts. FirstEnergy expressly disclaims any current intention to update, except as required by la w, any forward-look ing statements contained her ein as a resu lt of new information, future events or otherwise.
www.firstenergycorp.com

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.

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