TVA to build gas plant in East Tennessee
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD
Associated Press Writer
Posted: Today at 12:14 p.m.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Valley Authority will build an $820 million natural gas power plant in East Tennessee in order to comply with a North Carolina lawsuit over air quality.
TVA directors meeting in Young Harris, Ga., agreed Thursday to shift work from a gas plant in Mississippi and another in West Tennessee to building a new plant somewhere north of Knoxville.
The agency is worried it can't meet a federal judge's timetable for installing pollution controls on its John Sevier coal-fired plant in upper East Tennessee by a 2011 deadline. The ruling came in a lawsuit against TVA smokestack emissions blowing into North Carolina.
While TVA is appealing the ruling, the agency has decided to build a gas plant at the eastern end of its system just in case.
Thanks for the follow up. Good to know it's now headed from the drawing board to actual construction. Wonder if anyone knows where their gas supply will come from?