TVA says ruling won't change how it operates power plants

TVA says ruling won't change how it operates power plants

BY RICHARD POWELSON
powelsonr@shns.com

The Tennessee Valley Authority's leadership said Wednesday that an appeals court ruling in its suit against U.S. environmental officials will not change how the agency operates its coal-fired power plants.

TVA Vice President John Shipp, who manages environmental programs, said the regional power producer will continue to spend an average of roughly $1 million a day to keep its coal-fired plants in compliance with the federal Clean Air Act.

But environmental groups said they were frustrated that 3½ years after EPA first cited TVA for pollution violations a court has dismissed the whole case and may prompt another series of lengthy legal battles.

Shipp said it appeared from the court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency "used an unfair process (in 1999) when they determined that we had been violating the Clean Air Act when we maintained our plants. So, our view is that this decision allows us to continue to maintain our plants so that we can continue providing affordable power to our customers while at the same time we continue to reduce emissions."

The EPA started action against TVA in November 1999. It ordered TVA, a federal corporation, to get permits for additional pollution control devices that it believed were required under the Clean Air Act for new or greatly upgraded plants. TVA sued to block the order, and the court ruled in an opinion dated Tuesday that EPA should not have issued the original order but sued TVA in federal court to prove violations.

Stephen Smith, a spokesman for the Knoxville-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said it was ironic that the court decision to let TVA continue to handle pollution as it sees fit came on a hot summer day where much of the Southeast was under a Code Red alert for unhealthy smog levels caused in part by power plants.

"This ruling ... effectively means that TVA is allowed to continue to harm public health in the Southeast by emitting excessive levels of harmful air pollution from its coal-fired power plants," Smith said.

Eric Schaeffer, a former civil enforcement chief at EPA and now-frequent EPA critic, said, "This misguided move could mean several more years of litigation in the TVA case, which will delay cleanup of power plants that foul the air in Southeastern cities and the Great Smoky Mountains."

EPA spokesman John Millett said the agency had no immediate comment.

Shipp of TVA said the wholesale power producer has always been open to working out differences with the EPA, and remains open. But he also said the agency has not violated federal law.

Smith said the Allen power plant in Memphis is an example where TVA did major upgrades on its boiler and should have been required to add expensive scrubbers to reduce pollution.

Richard Powelson may be reached at 202-408-2727.