AG Roy Cooper Column 4/21/2011

NC health, economy win thanks to TVA settlement, AG Cooper says

Utility agrees to reduce air pollution flowing into state, pay NC $11.2 million

Asheville: North Carolina’s work to stop polluted haze from hurting residents’ health and clouding mountain vistas prevailed Thursday when the Tennessee Valley Authority agreed to reduce emissions from all of its coal-fired plants, Attorney General Roy Cooper said.

The result is that North Carolina prevails in winning clean-up of all of the TVA’s coal-fired plants, which is what Cooper sought in a 2006 lawsuit.  The settlement requires pollution reductions in more than the four plants a judge had ordered fixed. Those four – which are the closest to North Carolina – will be among the first to be controlled or shut down, putting North Carolina first in line to benefit from the settlement.

“North Carolina businesses will benefit with lower health care costs and more tourism dollars, and all of us benefit from better health,” Cooper said. “This agreement means our air will be more clear and our waters more clean. The settlement is a remarkable accomplishment and we are pleased that everyone involved could resolve it this way.”

According to a settlement signed Thursday, in addition to the sweeping pollution reduction program, the TVA will pay $11.2 million to North Carolina over the next five years to be used for energy efficiency and electricity demand reduction programs.

The settlement, signed by Cooper, representatives from the TVA, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, among others, will dramatically change the way the TVA’s coal-fired units operate and will result in the closure of many uncontrolled units, especially those close to North Carolina’s border. The TVA will be required to reduce emissions by retiring at least 18 of its 59 coal units and installing and continuously operating emission-control equipment on almost all of the remaining units.

Cooper, on behalf of North Carolina, had filed a public nuisance lawsuit against the TVA in 2006, claiming that the utility’s coal-fired plants sent polluted air into North Carolina.  Nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions from these plants are linked to increased incidence of premature mortality, asthma, chronic bronchitis and other cardiopulmonary illnesses in North Carolina.

The illnesses disproportionately impact children, resulting in lost school days and sickness. The pollution also degrades water and soil, damages farmers’ crops, and hurts the state’s forests and waterways. They also cause haze and reduce visibility, especially in the North Carolina mountains, a draw for the state’s $12 billion-a-year tourism industry. Controlling these pollutants also dramatically reduces mercury emissions.

“Pollution ignores state boundaries, so we all have to do our part to make sure the air is clean,” Cooper said. “This agreement is a victory for all of North Carolina.”

Cooper asked the courts to force the TVA to reduce emissions of pollutants and install the best available technology to control dirty air created by the plants. North Carolina’s tough 2002 law, the Clean Smokestacks Act, directed the state to aggressively pursue emissions reductions from out-of-state plants that adversely affected air quality in North Carolina.

The state law required North Carolina’s own largest coal-fired power plants to reduce harmful emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide. Cooper’s lawsuit asked the same of the TVA. U.S. District Court Judge Lacy Thornburg agreed, ruling in 2009 in North Carolina’s favor, though an appellate court later reversed the decision.  North Carolina has sought review of that decision in the United States Supreme Court, but agreed to withdraw its petition for review once the settlement is approved by a federal court in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Thornburg’s ruling had required the TVA to meet specific time limits for reductions in pollution at the four TVA plants closest to North Carolina. Thursday’s agreement does just that and more, requiring the utility to reduce pollution from all of its coal plants quickly and comprehensively.  ###