SELC Will Ensure TVA Evaluates Impacts and Allows for Public Review, Hearing

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal-burning Gallatin power plant is more than half a century old and has operated for decades without modern pollution controls. Rather than retire the aging facility and invest in cleaner energy sources, TVA intends to spend at least $1.2 billion to retrofit the plant. We are working to ensure that TVA looks at all potential impacts, including the long-term effects of millions of tons of global warming emissions the plant would pump out over the next 20 years or more.

SELC also has called for TVA to provide ample time for the public to review and comment on the complex proposal, and we are pushing for a public hearing so that there is a full airing of the utility’s plans and sufficient opportunity to consider alternatives—most notably investments in energy efficiency programs that would be a better deal for ratepayers as well as the environment.