The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just announced a consent agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) that will require that the TVA clean up emissions from its coal-fired plants. As part of the consent decree, the TVA is also going to invest in clean energy projects.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a settlement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations at 11 of its coal-fired plants in Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The settlement will require TVA to invest a TVA estimated $3 to $5 billion on new and upgraded state-of-the-art pollution controls that will prevent approximately 1,200 to 3,000 premature deaths, 2,000 heart attacks and 21,000 cases of asthma attacks each year, resulting in up to $27 billion in annual health benefits. TVA will also invest $350 million on clean energy projects that will reduce pollution, save energy and protect public health and the environment.
EPA Press Release, April 14
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has long had a large carbon footprint because of its coal-heavy generation portfolio. It currently operates 59 coal-fired plants. In the 1990s, TVA administrators issued 9 permits for new coal plants that did not have required emissions control equipment, violating the Clean Air Act. The EPA issued an administrative compliance order in 1999 that required the TVA install emission controls. Rather than comply, the TVA fought the order in court, setting off a protracted legal battle.
Here are the plants the TVA that were built without pollution controls:
Allen Fossil Plant near Memphis, Tenn.
Bull Run Fossil Plant near Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Colbert Fossil Plant in Tuscumbia, Ala.
Cumberland Fossil Plant in Cumberland City, Tenn
Gallatin Fossil Plant in Gallatin, Tenn.
John Sevier Fossil Plant near Rogersville, Tenn.
Johnsonville Fossil Plant near Waverly, Tenn.
Kingston Fossil Plant near Kingston, Tenn.
Paradise Fossil Plant in Drakesboro, Ky.
Shawnee Fossil Plant near Paducah, Ky.
Widows Creek Fossil Plant near Stevenson, Ala.
As an aside, two of these plants (Kingston, Widows Creek) have had recent coal ash impoundment failures. The massive spill at the Kingston plant cost taxpayers nearly $2 billion to clean up affected areas, transport and store sludge wastes.
As part of the settlement, TVA has agreed to clean up emissions from its entire system. At least 18 of the older plants will be retired.
This landmark settlement includes:
-An obligation to address 92 percent of TVA's coal-fired system between 2010 and 2018 with either the installation of state-of-the-art pollution controls such as selective catalytic reduction (SCR) or flue gas desulfurization (FGD), retirement, or repowering to renewable biomass:
For NOx, 60 percent of TVA's coal-fired system will be equipped with SCR, 16 percent will be retired, and 16 percent have the option to retire, retrofit with SCR, or repower to renewable biomass
For SO2, 51 percent of TVA's coal-fired system will be equipped with FGD, 16 percent will be retired, and 25 percent have the option to retire, retrofit with FGD, or repower to renewable biomass
-Permanent retirement of 18 coal-fired units equating to about 16 percent of TVA's coal-fired electricity generating system -- the largest retirement commitment any settling company has made to date under EPA's Coal-Fired Power Plant Initiative
-Continuous operation of all new and existing SCRs and FGDs
-Optimization studies for existing PM controls to maximize PM emission reductions
-Compliance with annual descending system-wide tonnage caps for NOx and SO2
-Annual surrender of any excess NOx and SO2 allowances resulting from actions taken under the Compliance Agreement
You can bet the faux fiscal hawk Republicans will whine, bitch, moan, and complain. The TVA estimates that these upgrades, retirements, and new investments will cost between $3 to 5 billion, much of it resulting in higher cost for consumers. Had the TVA chosen to comply with the laws when the plants were brought online, those costs would have already been factored into consumer costs. The EPA also estimates the potential savings from compliance with the Clean Air Act as a result of these upgrades and investments.
EPA estimates that the monetized health benefits of these emission reductions range from $11 to $27 billion (in 2010 dollars), per year, including avoiding 1,200 to 3,000 premature deaths, 2,000 non-fatal heart attacks, 800 cases of chronic bronchitis, 960 hospital admissions, 1,200 emergency department visits for asthma, 1,900 cases of acute bronchitis, 21,000 asthma attacks, 39,000 cases of upper or lower respiratory symptoms, 150,000 days when people miss work, and 880,000 days when people must restrict their activities per year.
The TVA will also begin to make investments in energy efficiency and clean energy that will further reduce its carbon footprint.
TVA will distribute a subset of the $350 million, a total of $60 million, to Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee for these states to implement projects of their choosing from a list of categories in the consent decree. Under the settlement with EPA, TVA will spend $290 million to perform the following projects:
$240 million as part of the Energy Efficiency Projects that are designed to increase efficiency in transmission and demand-side supply to displace utilization of coal-fired electricity generation.
TVA's Smart Energy Communities project will focus on energy efficiency, including: high efficiency air conditioning or water heating, lighting upgrades, and grid integrated renewable energy.
As part of the Smart Energy Communities, TVA will provide "Extreme Energy Makeovers" for at least two communities in the Tennessee Valley. This project will retrofit low-income housing with the most cost-effective energy reduction packages thereby reducing energy consumption by as much as 25 percent, and thus power generation and associated criteria and greenhouse gas emissions.
Additionally, TVA is offering incentive programs for residential, commercial, and industrial energy efficiency projects.
$40 million to reduce greenhouse gases and other pollutants through the Clean/Renewable Energy Projects. These projects include: waste heat recovery, electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid electric charging stations, solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, and landfill or waste treatment methane gas capture and generation.
$8 million for a Clean Diesel Retrofit and Electric Vehicle Project that requires TVA to either retrofit in-service, public diesel engines with emission control equipment designed to reduce emissions of NOx and volatile organic compounds or to replace such vehicles with electric or hybrid-electric vehicles.
$1 million each to the National Park Service and the National Forest Service to improve, protect, or rehabilitate park and forest lands that have been injured by emissions from TVA's plants, including Mammoth Cove National Park and Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Park Service) and Cohutta Wilderness Area, Linville Gorge Wilderness Area, Shining Rock Wilderness Area, Sipsey Wilderness Area, and Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness Area (Forest Service).
Three environmental organizations joined in the suit against the TVA - National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club, and Our Children’s Earth Foundation.
Before we celebrate, there is a still a chance for this agreement to fall apart.
Although the Compliance Agreement will not be lodged in Federal court because it is a settlement between two federal agencies, EPA will still be accepting public comments on the agreement. Information on submitting comments will be made available in the Federal Register. EPA has reserved the right to seek modifications or withdraw its consent to the agreement if public comments received during the comment period indicate that the Compliance Agreement is inappropriate, improper, or inadequate.
When the comment period is announced, I will put together a reminder to participate.
By the way, I would like to acknowledge the always fine reporting of Ken Ward Jr. at the Charleston Gazette.