Environmental Protection Agency

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear says proposed federal regulations on carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants provide the state with some “flexibility” in meeting government targets.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced this month that the nation must reduce carbon emissions created by burning coal by 30 percent.

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s CEO says the power giant will study the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed new carbon dioxide pollution guidelines to see what impact they will have on its remaining coal-burning power plants.

Legislation seeking to end what some call strict Environmental Protection Agency regulations on coal-fired power plant emissions has passed the house Energy and Commerce subcommittee.

Kentucky's first district Republican Congressman Ed Whitfield chairs the subcommittee and co-sponsored the bill with Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to propose rules regulating greenhouse gas emissions—like carbon dioxide –from existing power plants next June. But Kentucky regulators are preemptively trying to influence the agency’s decision-making.

The Secretary of the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet said he’s a strong supporter of natural gas development as a source of energy in Kentucky and elsewhere. However, Len Peters said the country will be a lot better off with a blend of options.

“If all we do is move coal-dominated electricity generation to a natural gas electricity generation is not a good way to go," said Peters. "There’s no diversification in that. We have to be able to build coal. We have to be able to build natural gas. Nobody wants to build nuclear these days so we’re moving away from a more balanced set of opportunities.”

A U.S. District Court has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to determine whether to set new limitations on pollution that is fueling dangerous algae growth in many waterways across the nation.

The court’s decision comes after a suit was filed against the EPA by several conservation groups, including the Kentucky Waterways Alliance.

Democratic US Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes is attacking the Obama administration for an Environmental Protection Agency ruling that she said will cost coal mining jobs in Kentucky.

Grimes, who’s seeking to replace Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, said she was deeply disappointed by the EPA’s decision to impose stricter limits on carbon pollution from new coal-fired power plants. 

The Sierra Club is calling a circuit court decision to overrule a Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet permit that allowed a coal-burning power plant to dump polluted water into the Ohio River a landmark.

Louisville Gas and Electric’s Trimble County power plant uses settling ponds for wastewater before sending it into the Ohio River. The Energy and Environment Cabinet issued a permit for this treatment effective April 2010. Sierra Club Kentucky Energy Chair Wallace McMullen said the permitted treatment isn’t enough to keep the water clean.

“We were fairly appalled that they were letting water which has been used to try to absorb all the nasty poisons in the flue gas – arsenic, mercury, barium, what have you – and it’s just going straight into the Ohio without any significant treatment,” he said.