TVA votes to close 2 old coal plants

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – The TVA Board of Directors meeting in Chattanooga voted on Thursday to close two old coal burning plants.

The two plants are Paradise Fossil in western Kentucky and Bull Run Fossil near Oak Ridge.

Plant supporters from those towns came to Chattanooga to try to keep them open, while environmental groups lobbied to shut them down for pollution reasons.

“We applaud TVA for making the right decision and for ignoring President Trump’s Tweet and misguided support for dirty, uneconomical coal, said the executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

But Dr. Stephen A. Smith did not like the board’s decision to cancel their rooftop solar program without a replacement in mind.

Senator Lamar Alexander also approves of the coal vote.

“TVA is doing a good job of fulfilling its responsibility to provide large amounts of clean reliable electricity at the lowest possible cost to ratepayers. That means putting pollution control equipment on all of its operating coal plants and closing those plants that are inefficient or too expensive. TVA currently is producing 20% of its electricity from coal plants with pollution controls and plans to continue to do approximately that for the foreseeable future.”

The board also picked Jeffrey Lyash as the new president and chief executive officer of the agency.

He was the CEO and president of Canadian utility Ontario Power Generation.

Lyash will replace retiring Bill Johnson.

Jeffery Lyash