EPA's new pollution limits on fossil fuel plants could require the Tennessee Valley Authority to alter some of its future power generation plans or develop more carbon capture technologies to offset emissions from its growing fleet of natural gas-fired generation

EPA's new pollution limits on fossil fuel plants could require the Tennessee Valley Authority to alter some of its future power generation plans or develop more carbon capture technologies to offset emissions from its growing fleet of natural gas-fired generation.

Environmental groups fighting TVA's plans to build more natural gas generation said Thursday the new EPA rules, if sustained, would require more carbon emission reductions on fossil fuel plants than what is planned by TVA and other utilities in the Southeast.

TVA has pledged to phase out all of its coal-fired power generation by 2035 and has set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. TVA has already cut its carbon emissions by 57% below its 2005 emission levels.

But the federal utility is also building or planning to build new natural gas plants across Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama to help offset power lost by shutting down 52 coal-fired generators it once operated.

TVA and other Southern utilities are planning the biggest additions of natural gas generation of any utilities in the country, according to the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Chris Carnevale, the climate advocacy director for the alliance, said in a statement Thursday the new EPA rules should be "a wake-up call to Southeast utilities, regulators and lawmakers, that the status quo of building large unabated fossil gas plants can't continue."

"The power plant rules are real and final, and utilities and regulators need to treat them as such," Carnevale said.

TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks said in a statement Thursday that "TVA is actively reviewing the new EPA rules" as the utility prepares a new integrated resource plan for its long-term power future. TVA was originally scheduled to release a draft of the integrated resource plan this month, but that has been pushed back to allow for more study on ways to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuel plants to meet stricter standards.

"We are actively integrating more renewables into the system, investing in new technologies and retiring older, less efficient generation," Brooks said in a statement. "We are doing this in a holistic way that ensures affordability, reliability and resiliency for our 10 million customers."

The natural gas plants TVA has or plans to build to replace coal units at its Paradise, Allen, Colbert, Kingston and Cumberland fossil sites are expected to reduce carbon emissions by more than 60% compared with the old coal units, TVA President Jeff Lyash has said.

"Natural gas is an important part of our transition to a carbon-neutral future while maintaining reliability," Lyash said in a statement last year. "These state-of-the-art units will allow us to respond quickly to load demand and improve flexibility as we add more renewable energy, which is not always available on demand."

TVA also is seeking to reduce carbon output by installing more solar generation, but Lyash said gas generation is needed to meet the growing demand for electricity in the Tennessee Valley from population growth and the electrification of the transportation industry.

The new gas units may not achieve the 90% carbon reduction target in the new EPA rules for all fossil fuel plants without carbon offsets or carbon capture technology. TVA said it is studying technologies to capture carbon emitted from gas generators, although it has yet to deploy any major carbon capture methods.

"Even though EPA has had the proposed version of these rules on the books for about a year, major utilities, including Duke, Georgia Power, TVA, Dominion Energy South Carolina, and Santee Cooper have failed to adequately plan to comply with the rules, while committing tens of billions of ratepayers' dollars to gas projects subject to these rules, Carnevale said.

"Today's announcement sends a clearer signal: Utilities and regulators must rethink the reckless drive toward a risky gas-dominant future," he said.

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.