On June 2, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a new rule –to be implemented next year – that will limit the amount of carbon emissions each state can produce.
However, the affect on Tennessee may be mild.
The rule calls for utilities in Tennessee to make a 39 percent reduction in carbon emissions from 2012 levels.
The rule, if implemented, will be the first ever limits on carbon pollution by the regulatory agency. (http://cleanpowerplanmaps.epa.gov/CleanPowerPlan/)
The new rule calls for a national 30 percent reduction in carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2030, a limit the Tennessee Valley Authority – the primary source of electricity for the state and parts of several others – has already met and is on track to surpass.
The Tennessee Valley Authority’s carbon emissions for 2013 were 30 percent below 2005 levels, a figure it is planning to improve to 40 percent in six years.
“By 2020, TVA’s carbon emissions will be about one-half of what they were at their peak in 1995,” according to a statement released the day the new rule was announced.
While the EPA will require states to submit an action plan, the rule targets emissions from power plants, which in Tennessee are largely owned by Tennessee Valley Authority.
While the rule provides wide flexibility in how each state can meet the new standards, it likely will affect coal plants, one of the largest contributors to climate change causing greenhouse gases.
Following a 2011 agreement with regulators and environmental groups, Tennessee Valley Authority has quickly moved away from coal, reducing its coal usage by 9 percent in just two years.
“We are working to complete and even exceed that agreement now. So far we have committed to retire about half of our coal units,” said Duncan Mansfield of Tennessee Valley Authority Public Relations and Corporate Information.
“TVA will close three of its 11 coal plants by 2018 and is evaluating others.”
The 81-year-old federal corporation has increased its reliance on natural gas, dams and nuclear power, which includes plans to bring the Watts Bar Unit 2 Nuclear Reactor online in 2015, the first new commercial reactor in the U.S. since 1996.
Angela Garrone, a Southeast Energy Research Attorney for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said last week that while the new rules will prevent Tennessee Valley Authority from back-pedaling on its previous agreements, she does not expect many difficulties for the corporation.
“TVA has been smart about this,” she said. “It has already put the wheels in motion to be less carbon intensive knowing that at some point carbon was going to be regulated.
“Any utility should have known this was going to happen.”
Natural gas is a cleaner burning fossil fuel that emits roughly half as much carbon as coal, Garrone said, and it is considered an acceptable intermediary resource between coal and renewable energy.
Mansfield also said Tennessee Valley Authority CEO Bill Johnson wants to move his company toward a more diversified energy portfolio.
Mansfield said a shift in focus could result in 40 percent of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s power coming from nuclear reactors, up from the current 36 percent. Coal, natural gas and other renewable energy will be roughly equal in making up the remaining 60 percent.
The Tennessee utility is not alone in moving away from coal. Last September, the UT steam plant on Lake Loudon Boulevard finalized plans to convert the facility from coal to natural gas. Doing so will reduce emissions by nearly two-thirds, in addition to making the plant more efficient. The project is scheduled for completion in spring 2015.
