LOCATION: Cuffs Run – Chanceford Township, York County along the Susquehanna River

STATUS: Active

ISSUE IN BRIEF:

In February 2023, a Reading-based company called York Energy Storage (YES) submitted a preliminary permit application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build a pumped storage hydroelectric project along the Susquehanna River at Lake Clarke. FERC denied that application, and a subsequent preliminary permit application was submitted in Nov. 2023 and deemed unsatisfactory. In early 2024, YES submitted a revised application and in February FERC accepted that permit application. Over 1,500 public comments including local elected officials, business owners, affected landowners, and others who voiced opposition were submitted to FERC. FERC neglected those comments and issued an order granting the preliminary permit for the project on November 21, 2024. In May 2025, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper and partner organizations filed a petition for review in the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. On December 18, 2025, Riverkeeper and partners filed their opening brief with the Third Circuit to vacate FERC’s order granting the preliminary permit.

BACKGROUND:

York Energy Storage’s (YES) proposed hydropower project is a large, open-loop “pumped storage” facility that would occupy more than one thousand acres in the middle of a federally listed National Heritage Area and state listed Conservation Landscape, destroying about 580 acres of forest habitat, 340 acres of active farmland, and 50 family residences in York County.

The proposal involves building more than two miles of dams and dikes to flood much of this land for use as an “upper reservoir” and using the Susquehanna River at Lake Clarke as a “lower reservoir.” It would also require building an underground powerhouse, an above-ground switchyard, a 1,500-foot-long powerhouse access tunnel, and three miles of high-voltage transmission line to connect the facility to an electricity substation in Lancaster County. York Energy Storage estimates that the entire project will cost about $2.3 billion, will take at least ten years before it is operational, and will have a 50-year lifespan.

YES expects the facility to turn a profit by exploiting the difference in electricity prices at different hours of the day. During the day, when electricity prices are high, the facility would generate electricity by allowing water to flow downhill—from the upper reservoir to the lower reservoir—through turbines. At night, when prices are lower, the facility would consume energy by pumping water back uphill into the upper reservoir. This technology is not innovative, let alone “green.” Pumped storage facilities have existed for more than a century. And York Energy’s facility would be a net consumer of energy because pumping the water uphill would use about 20% more energy than letting the water flow back downhill would create.

In addition to its blatant energy inefficiencies, our organization is concerned over impacts to the Susquehanna River and recreational access along with aesthetics to the surrounding landscape and critical habitat. This project would cause massive shifts in river levels and cause continued ecological strain in an area of the River already monopolized by power production.

This proposal is nothing new for our organization. We fought against this same project back in 2011 alongside residents and local leaders. However, strong opposition from those local residents and public officials forced the company to withdraw its permit application before FERC had a chance to act on it. That has been the history of this project. From 1990-1999, a company called Mid-Atlantic Energy Engineers obtained 2 preliminary permits to study the same project in the same location. Despite studying the project for nearly a decade, the company never submitted a hydropower license application. The current owner William McMahon of York Energy Storage also owned and represented Mid-Atlantic in the 1990s.

In 2023, McMahon created a new entity named York Energy Storage and submitted another preliminary permit application to FERC to build the same exact pumped storage hydroelectric project along the Susquehanna River at Lake Clarke as he did in the 1990s. In response, our organization formed a coalition in opposition with Cuffs Run Alliance, Lancaster Conservancy, Farm & Natural Lands Trust of York County, Susquehanna National Heritage Area, Chesapeake Bay Foundation and multiple affected residents and landowners. Once FERC accepted the permit, we brought together our local communities and invited FERC’s staff to participate in a public meeting to educate concerned citizens on the process of FERC licensing and submitting public comments. Our outreach was widespread and helped usher over 1,500 public comments in opposition including every single elected official in York and Lancaster counties. However, FERC did not consider any of those comments and in November 2024, they issued an order granting the preliminary permit for York Energy Storage. Our organization and partners have filed an appeal in the Third Circuit US Court of Appeals. Our opening brief was filed on December 18, 2025. We remain united in opposition with our partners and look forward to oral arguments sometime in 2026.

IN THE MEDIA: