The Tennessee Valley Authority, which has already cut its greenhouse gas emissions from coal-burning power plants by 30 percent over the past decade, expects to further reduce its carbon emissions in the next five years enough to largely meet most of the new controls announced Monday by the Environmental Protection Agency two years ahead of the EPA’s 2022 deadline.
TVA President Bill Johnson said today that the utility is still reviewing EPA rules issued Monday. But TVA’s long-range power plan, which the TVA board is scheduled to adopt at its next meeting on Aug. 21, projects that carbon emissions from TVA power plants will be 40 percent lower in 2020 than they were in 2005 – the base year upon which EPA has set its new standards to try to limit emissions linked with global warming.
Although some states in the Tennessee Valley have threatened to sue or not enforce the new EPA rules until a court rules on their legality, Johnson said TVA developed its integrated resource plan for the next 20 years assuming there would be some limits on carbon emissions.
I think we’re very well positioned to comply with this,” Johnson said today in an earnings call with industry analysts. “The IRP (integrated resource plan) has us on the right path.”
Johnson said as a federal agency, TVA must comply with EPA rules and the 20-year power plan TVA has developed over the past couple of years was designed to help meet the expected carbon regulations. Johnson said meeting the new regulations may push up some TVA rates as the Watts Bar nuclear plant is brought on line and as more money is spent on pollution controls, energy efficiency and renewable energy.