NASHVILLE - U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to add Tennessee to the list of states in which it is conducting public hearings on coal ash regulations.
He said the agency announced it would hold a hearing in Roane County, site of a devastating December 2008 coal-ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant.
EPA's press office did not immediately return telephone calls. It was not clear when the hearing would be held.
Alexander, who had urged EPA to add Tennessee to a list of seven previously scheduled hearings on coal ash regulations, called the move "exactly the right thing for EPA to do and I'm glad they're doing it.
"To have a hearing on coal ash without asking Tennesseans our opinion is like having a hearing on Katrina without asking the citizens of New Orleans what they think or asking the residents of the Gulf Coast what they think about the Gulf oil spill," he said.