TVA to shut down 18 coal plants and install pollution controls on more

[Willinois]

Big news from a utility that's also investing in solar and wind power.

http://sierraclub.typepad.com/compass/20...n-air.html

Earlier today the Board of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) voted to approve a settlement that provides for the single largest coal retirement announcement in the nation's history.

The settlement requires the permanent retirement of 18 coal units, totaling 2,700-megawatts of TVA's coal fleet. In addition, it requires the retirement or clean up of an additional 2,800-megwatts over the next decade.

Ken Ward, reporter at the Charleston Gazette, put those numbers in perspective, stating that just three of the plants being closed bought an amount of coal in 2010 equivalent to four large West Virginia surface mines.

This decision also brings tremendous public health benefits for the millions of residents living in a four-state region where the air is unsafe to breathe, and the Smoky Mountains, America's most visited National Park, which for more than half century has been polluted by TVA's coal plants.