A planned Cambria County coke facility that had the support of Gov. Ed Rendell and that the state hustled to approve last year won't be built because the company failed to break ground within 18 months of getting the permit.

The state Department of Environmental Protection permit issued to Sun Coke Co. for the 1.7 million-ton-a-year coke plant and an adjacent electric power generating station expired Oct. 4, and the company says it is not interested in pursuing the project at this time.

"For various reasons, we won't go through with it," said Gerald Davis, a spokesman for Philadelphia-based Sunoco Inc., parent company of Sun Coke. He refused to elaborate, but said any renewal of interest by the company in the project "will depend on future business opportunities."

The coke and power plant facility would have employed 750 people. It was endorsed by Mr. Rendell, who visited Ebensburg 10 days before the DEP approved the permit in April 2005 to deliver a $3.3 million financial incentive package aimed at helping Amfire Mining Co., of Latrobe, reopen an old mine that was to supply coal to the coke plant.

At the time, a DEP spokeswoman said the project was "a priority for the governor," who liked it because it would create hundreds of jobs and protect the environment.

But environmental groups and federal agencies questioned the high soot, mercury and sulfur emissions allowed by the permit, which was granted a day before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated Cambria County in non-attainment of federal soot limits. Such a designation requires a new source, such as the coke plant, to install the best available pollution control equipment and find and buy emission reductions from other industrial sources to offset the amount of soot the new facility would emit.

According to the DEP permit, the Sun Coke plant was allowed annually to emit 940 tons of soot, 3,661 tons of sulfur dioxide, 1,365 tons of sulfur dioxides and 47 pounds of mercury. The company's original permit proposal asked that it be allowed to emit 538 pounds of mercury a year.

Federal park and wilderness managers as far away as Virginia's Shenandoah National Park expressed concern about the smog and acid-rain-producing emissions.

Two environmental groups, Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, or PennFuture, and the Group Against Smog and Pollution, appealed the issuance of the permit to the state Environmental Hearing Board. As a result of the expiration of Sun Coke's permit, those appeals have been declared moot.

"[Sunoco] made the decision based on the worldwide coke market, which has declined since the permit was issued," said Jeanne Clark, a spokeswoman for PennFuture. "We didn't want to stop the plant from operating. We just wanted it clean."

Coke, made by baking coal at high temperature, is a key ingredient in making steel.

Mercury, released into the air when coal is burned, is a persistent neurotoxin that accumulates in the environment and can be passed to humans through fish consumption. Pregnant women, children, subsistence fishermen and recreational anglers are most at risk for health effects, which include brain, nervous system, heart and immune system damage.