Sierra Club urges TVA to close coal plantsFeb 13 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Ed Marcum The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.
The Sierra Club officials said Tuesday TVA could keep rates lower by retiring coal plants and making more use of energy efficiency for meeting power needs, than spending money installing scrubbers on the plants. Sierra Club members met with TVA officials Monday and asked the federal utility to consider this approach as it considers adding air pollution control equipment to its Gallatin Fossil Plant and other facilities, said Vanessa Pierce, eastern region director for the Sierra's Club's Beyond Coal Campaign. "TVA is planning to spend about $1.2 billion to modernize and put scrubbers on the Gallatin plant," she said. "We think it would be more beneficial to take that money and invest it in energy efficiency instead." TVA plans to have the scrubbers in place at Gallatin by 2016, but Joe Hoagland, senior vice president of policy and oversight, said the decision is not final until an environmental assessment phase ends in early March. This allows a chance for public input, he said. But, regardless of the scrubber issue, TVA is not inclined to shutter the plant, he said. "Gallatin is cost effective and it runs well. It runs a lot because it is well maintained," Hoagland said. The Sierra Club commissioned a study by Synapse Energy Economics that concluded TVA's plan to put scrubbers on its Gallatin, Allen, Colbert and Shawnee fossil plants will cost at least $11 billion and raise rates for decades. Greater reliance on energy efficiency would allow TVA to save enough energy over the next three years to retire a coal plant, according to the study. TVA's long-range energy plan calls for a balanced mix of energy sources in case of market fluctuations, and that means fairly equal amounts of coal, nuclear, energy efficiency and other sources, Hoagland said. The plan would increase TVA energy efficiency capacity from 3,600 megawatts to 5,100 megawatts by 2020. The TVA board of directors meets at 8:30 a.m. Thursday at the agency's Chattanooga office, 1101 Market St. http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=27564294
|