Mercury rules won't hit TVA for 5 years

Mercury rules won't hit TVA for 5 years

BY DAVE FLESSNER
BUSINESS EDITOR

Mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants will be regulated for the first time under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

But environmental groups denounced the rules as too little, too late.

"Given the choice between protecting the health of Tennessee's children and protecting big polluters, the Bush administration has chosen the polluters," said Kate Prevost, Southeast field organizer for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

The Tennessee Valley Authority and other electric utilities don't expect to have to install any additional controls for at least the next five years to meet the standards. Thereafter, however, TVA officials said the utility may have to add costly control measures to further reduce toxic mercury emissions.

"We support this approach and are committed to meeting these new targets for mercury emissions," TVA Director Bill Baxter said Tuesday. "But I think it's important to remember that power plants contribute only 1 percent of the worldwide mercury emissions each year. These limits will be overwhelmed by the increased mercury emissions from industries in China and India if more isn't done on an international basis."

Mr. Baxter said meeting the mercury and other pollution controls announced last week by EPA "unquestionably will increase the cost of electricity" over time.

TVA estimates it currently emits about 1½ tons — 3,200 pounds — of mercury a year from its 59 coal-fired power-generating units. Nationwide, power plants emit an estimated 48 tons of mercury a year.

The EPA rules anticipate that the nation's coal-burning power plants will cut mercury emissions to 31.3 tons in 2010, 27.9 tons in 2015 and 24.3 tons in 2020.

The rules were developed in response to a court-ordered deadline in a settlement with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Since the late 1990s, the EPA has regulated mercury dumped in water and air from municipal waste and medical waste incinerators. But power plants have not even been required to measure their mercury emissions.

Environmental and public health groups criticized EPA's approach for not requiring all power plants to use the maximum available pollution-control technology.

Under the rules, TVA and other power plant operators will be able to buy and sell pollution allowances under a "cap-and-trade" approach to meet the nationwide objective. Power plants that overcomply with EPA's requirements may sell their excess pollution allowance to another utility that may not yet achieve its targeted levels.

"The cap-and-trade approach for cutting mercury emissions can provide the greatest health benefits in the long run because it creates a market for new control technologies that can reduce more mercury than is possible today," said Michael Rossler, manager of environmental programs for the industry group, the Edison Electric Institute.

John Shipp, TVA's vice president of environmental policy, said TVA may buy and sell mercury pollution credits in the future. But during the initial five-year phase of EPA's rules, Mr. Shipp said TVA's control measures for sulfur and nitrogen oxides should help cut mercury emissions to allowable levels. Scrubbers and selective catalytic reduction devices being installed at many of TVA's biggest coal units should slash mercury emissions from those plants by up to 85 percent, Mr. Shipp said.

"It's far weaker than what is needed and far less than what the Clean Air Act requires," said Valerie True, clean air program coordinator for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

In the Southeast, mercury-related fish consumption advisories are in place for 145,541 miles of rivers and another 23 million miles of coastline.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Kentucky utility renews TVA contract after plan to exit fold

BY DUNCAN MANSFIELD
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KNOXVILLE — Bowling Green Municipal Utilities, one of several power distributors in Kentucky and Tennessee considering breaking from the Tennessee Valley Authority system, will renew its contract to buy electricity from TVA, officials said Tuesday.

The 25,000-customer Bowling Green utility, which has received TVA power since 1942, filed notice in 2002 that it would be finding another supplier after 2007.

After reviewing 13 proposals, the Bowling Green board agreed Monday to rescind the notice and remain with TVA under current terms and rates with a rolling five-year cancellation requirement.

"The criteria considered ... were based on price, reliability and service," the utility said. "BGMU's goal was to act in the best interest of its customers by providing them with reliable electric service at the lowest cost possible. BGMU is glad to continue its long relationship with TVA."

A neighboring utility, Warren Rural Electric Cooperative Corp., has told TVA it will leave the 158-distributor TVA fold in 2008 and get its power from East Kentucky Power Cooperative. It will be the first utility to leave TVA since Bristol Virginia Utilities in 1997.

"Our perspective is we made the right decision for the citizens of Bowling Green," BGMU general manager Brian Skelton said in a telephone interview. "I am sure Warren Electric made the right decision for their customers, and I would hope all the distributors do that."