U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., listens to a response by Harold DePriest, president and CEO of the EPB and chairman for the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, during a roundtable discussion Thursday morning at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga regarding electricity and the Tennessee Valley Authority’s effect on economic development. Corker, who is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, led the discussion with several panelists.U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., brought a discussion about electricity and jobs to Chattanooga on Thursday by asking Tennessee Valley business and energy leaders to put their concerns on the table-a UTC roundtable.
One after another, the speakers assembled by Corker for the electricity and economic development roundtable at the University of Chattanooga at Tennessee said ever-increasing regulation and rising electric rates are a costly combination. Especially in an era when loss of competitiveness can mean even fewer jobs.
Lloyd Webb, energy director of Olin in Charleston, Tenn., said TVA’s below-average electric rates helped Olin make a decision years ago to keep its Tennessee plant open and spend $160 million to make its manufacturing process mercury-free.
“Now TVA industrial rates are no longer competitive with the rest of the country,” Webb said.
TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore told Corker that TVA, too, wants to see the rates lower. But meeting environmental regulation — sometimes on a tight deadline — is a high cost.