PDF: Burning Coal cash report
The Tennessee Valley Authority, which pioneered one of America’s first major conservation incentive programs a generation ago, now spends less than one-fourth as much per capita as other electric utilities on energy efficiency, according to a new study by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Robert Cowin, one of the authors of the study, said in 2007 TVA spent the equivalent of $1.64 for each Tennessean on efficiency incentives and education. Nationwide, the typical utility spent $7.36 per capita on programs to promote energy efficiency.
“Tennessee ranks among the lowest states in promoting efficiency even though studies have shown that Tennessee could reduce its electricity consumption up to 26 percent by 2020 with the right incentives and standards,” Mr. Cowin told reporters and editors at the Times Free Press on Friday.
For every 1 percent reduction in electricity use, Tennesseans would collectively save $54 million. Because more than 60 percent of TVA’s electricity generation comes from burning coal imported into Tennessee from other states, more than $1.2 billion in electricity revenues flow out of Tennessee to pay for TVA’s primary fuel.
“Tennessee can reduce that dependence on dirty coal, and help generate more jobs at home, by tapping its wealth of renewable energy resources,” said Sam Gomberg, a policy associate for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said the utility is building new nuclear plants, expanding its energy audits and education and buying more renewable power to cut its use of coal.
But coal-fired power plants have helped keep TVA residential power rates more than 20 percent below the U.S. average, which encouraged major manufacturers such as Volkswagen, Wacker Chemie and Hemlock Semiconductor to each begin work on $1 billion plants over the past two years, he said.
TVA ended many of its weatherization loan programs in the 1980s after the utility said most interested consumers had taken advantage of the program.
“TVA is very interested in developing additional clean and renewable energy sources, however, the notion that we could stop buying out-of-state coal and use that money to develop renewables is not realistic,” Mr. Brooks said.