January 24, 2014-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor
Reuters reported today that Big Rivers will soon “idle” 860 MegaWatts of coal fired electric capacity in western Kentucky. That move expected to be completed by the end of June.
Big Rivers Electric Corporation’s, Kenneth C. Coleman plant near Hawesville, Kentucky is now slated to be “idled” due to their sweetheart deal with Century Aluminum, adjacent to the plant, coming to an end. © BlairPhotoEVV.
According the Reuters report, “Marty Littrel, a spokesman for Big Rivers, said the company was looking to idle the plants, not retire them. “This is a temporary thing. We have some of the lowest-cost power in the country and have made proposals to sell electricity to several other companies,” Littrel said, noting the plants could sell power anywhere in the Eastern Interconnection, which covers much of the eastern two-thirds of North America.
Either way, this should be good news for tri-state air quality since together these plants emit a total of: NOX-6,061 tons; SO2-10,640 tons; toxic air pollution-5,340,920 pounds according to EPA’s eGRID database for 2009 and the Toxic Release Inventory for 2010.
Big Rivers’ DB Wilson plant in Ohio County, KY is slated to be “idled” by the end of February according to a Reuters News Service story posted 1/24/14. © BlairPhotoEVV.
Those emissions reductions, coupled with the reductions that will come from the shuttering of three coal units at TVA’s Paradise plant, announced last fall should bode well for the health of people across the area of western Kentucky and southwest Indiana.
Valley Watch has fought for years to get these plants either cleaned up or shut down but we are surprised to see the Wilson plant get the ax since it is the newest, most efficient plant in the Big Rivers system.