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TVA Needs Your Input on Options For Shawnee Plant

TVA Needs Your Input on Options For Shawnee Plant
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By West Kentucky Star Staff
Oct. 21, 2014 | PADUCAH, KY
By West Kentucky Star Staff Oct. 21, 2014 | 10:41 AM | PADUCAH, KY
The Tennessee Valley Authority invites the public to provide input on options being considered for the future of two coal-burning units at Shawnee Fossil Plant near Paducah.

TVA must decide whether to install additional air pollution controls on Units 1 and 4, convert those units to burn biomass, or retire them by Dec. 31, 2017. This is required under a 2011 clean-air agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency, the State of Kentucky, other states, and environmental groups, including the Sierra Club. The agreement also requires TVA to select one of these emission reduction options then notify EPA and the other participants by Dec. 31, 2014.

There are seven additional operating coal-fired units at the plant that are not affected by this proposal. A remaining unit, Shawnee 10, was retired in 2014. TVA is preparing an Environmental Assessment to help decide the future of Units 1 and 4. The options to install scrubbers and Selective Catalytic Reduction controls or permanently retire the units will be looked at in more detail in the Environmental Assessment. TVA has examined the feasibility of converting coal units at Shawnee and elsewhere to burn biomass several times and this has not proved feasible.

The comment period runs from Oct. 20 through Nov. 10, 2014. Comments can be submitted in writing to Charles P. Nicholson, PhD, NEPA Compliance, Tennessee Valley Authority, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, WT 11B, Knoxville, TN 37902-1499, by email at cpnicholson@tva.gov or online at the link below.

Following the public comment period, TVA will issue a draft Environmental Assessment regarding the units, and further public comment will be taken regarding that document in mid-November. “TVA’s board of directors and management are committed to making the best decision at Shawnee to provide reliable, low cost electricity to the Valley, to safeguard the environment, and to support economic development,” said Brenda Brickhouse, vice president of Environment. “Providing service to the Valley includes considering views of the people who live and work here. We want to hear from them.”

The Shawnee Fossil Plant was completed in 1957 and produces approximately 8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to supply 540,000 homes. The Tennessee Valley Authority is a corporate agency of the United States that provides electricity for business customers and local power distributors serving 9 million people in parts of seven southeastern states. TVA receives no taxpayer funding, deriving virtually all of its revenues from sales of electricity. In addition to operating and investing its revenues in its electric system, TVA provides flood control, navigation and land management for the Tennessee River system and assists local power companies and state and local governments with economic development and job creation.

On the Net:

Contact TVA By Clicking HERE
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