Tennessee Valley Authority Ordered By EPA to Revise Permit for Coal-Fired Plant

The US Environmental Protection Agency has sided with environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity, and ruled that a permit for a Tennessee Valley Authority coal-fired plant in Drakesboro, Kentucky failed to account for air pollution (specifically the greenhouse gas nitrogen oxide) in violation of the Clean Air Act. Parties have until October 9 to seek judicial review of the EPA’s order, or state regulators will have until October 27, 2009 to submit a revised permit in response.

In EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s order, she found that the permit issued by Kentucky’s Division for Air Quality for the 2,273 MW Paradise Fossil Fuel Plant failed to require pollution controls and monitoring for nitrogen oxide pollution. Specifically, in requiring the TVA to submit a revised permit application, Jackson said the current permit did not (1) include proper analysis for the plant's three boilers for NOX when making upgrades; (2) require adequate monitoring systems for opacity and NOX; or (3) provide adequate monitoring from soot emissions from the coal washing and handling.

However, on four other claims Jackson sided with Kentucky’s Division for Air Quality and TVA finding that the permit (1) should not require year-round operation of the selective catalytic reduction system and (2) should not include case-by-case determination of the maximum achievable pollution control technologies for several boilers.

According to TVA, the Paradise plant generates 14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to supply more than 930,000 homes. By 2010, TVA estimates it will spend about $6 billion on emissions controls at its fossil-fuel plants to ensure that this power supply is generated as cleanly as possible, consistent with efficiency.

The Clean Air Act allows parties to seek judicial review of the order within 60 days of publication in the Federal Register. The notice of the final order was published in the Federal Register on August 10, 2009.