More idealogy than facts in statement?
EDITOR:
At the recent meeting of the Anderson County Intergovernmental Committee meeting, a letter from our state senator, Lt. Governor Randy McNally, was read in which he opposes the TVA plan to close the Bull Run Fossil Plant in 2023.
TVA’s decision to close the plant was based on a number of factors, including increasingly frequent breakdowns, and the bottom line is that the cost of producing power at this plant is too high and the generating capacity of the plant is no longer needed in the TVA system.
While our entire community has benefited from the power produced there, our neighbors close to the plant have suffered the negative effects of producing power by burning coal and storing highly toxic coal ash at the site.
Nearby residents are concerned about apparently high cancer rates and other adverse health impacts. As reported recently in the Courier, TDEC and TVA are currently conducting an environmental assessment that will document the environmental effects in the areas around the plant; local residents expressed their concerns that human health effects should also be closely examined. I find it curious that my elected official, Senator McNally, chose to weigh in against this plant closure.
Clearly, there are significant global and local environmental benefits of closing this fossil fuel plant and the residents of Anderson County living nearby should be heard and their issues addressed.
If the generating capacity of the plant is not needed and the economics of operating the plant do not justify producing power there, it seems to me this is a decision that should be supported by someone who believes that markets, not the government, should determine outcomes.
Perhaps there is more ideology behind his opposition to the closure than facts.
Ellen Faby
Clinton