Tennessee and coal

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Introduction

With 2.80 million tons of coal mined in 2006, Tennessee is one of the lesser coal mining states, making up only 0.2% of U.S. coal production. Coal mines employed 643 people in 2006, all of which were non-union.

Tennessee had 63 coal-fired generating stations in 2005, with a total of 10,290 MW of capacity; this represents 44.8% of the state's electric generating capacity, and makes Tennessee the 14th biggest coal energy producing state.

In 2006, Tennessee's coal-fired power plants produced 60.6 million tons of CO₂, 263,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, and 98,000 tons of nitrogen oxide; power plants were responsible for 50.5% of the state's total CO₂ emissions.In 2005, Tennessee emitted 20.1 tons of CO₂ per person - roughly equal to the U.S. average. Despite strongly relying on coal power, Tennessee has a lower-than-expected level of CO₂ emissions, in part because - thanks to the Tennessee Valley Authority - the state gets 3,948 MW (17.2%) of its electric generating capacity from hydroelectric dams.

Retention pond wall collapses at Kingston plant in Tennessee

TVA ash spill in Harriman, TN on December 25, 2008. Photo courtesy of United Mountain Defense.

On December 22, 2008, a retention pond wall collapsed at TVA's Kingston plant in Harriman, TN, releasing a combination of water and fly ash that flooded 12 homes, spilled into nearby Watts Bar Lake, contaminated the Emory River, and caused a train wreck. Officials said 4 to 6 feet of material escaped from the pond to cover an estimated 400 acres of adjacent land. A train bringing coal to the plant became stuck when it was unable to stop before reaching the flooded tracks. Hundreds of fish were floating dead downstream from the plant. Water tests showed elevated levels of lead and thallium.

Originally TVA estimated that 1.7 million cubic yards of waste had burst through the storage facility. Company officials said the pond had contained a total of about 2.6 million cubic yards of sludge. However, the company revised its estimates on December 26, when it released an aerial survey showing that 5.4 million cubic yards (1.09 billion gallons) of fly ash was released from the storage facility. Several days later, the estimate was increased to over 1 billion gallons spilled.

The TVA spill was 100 times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, which released 10.9 billion gallons of crude oil. Cleanup was expected to take weeks and cost tens of millions of dollars.

The 40-acre pond was used to contain ash created by the coal-burning plant. The water and ash that were released in the accident are filled with toxic substances. Each year coal preparation creates waste containing an estimated 13 tons of mercury, 3236 tons of arsenic, 189 tons of beryllium, 251 tons of cadmium, and 2754 tons of nickel, and 1098 tons of selenium.

Derailed train dumps 1100 tons of coal next to New River

On January 9, 2009, a train operated by National Coal Corporation overturned and spilled around 1100 tons of coal next to the New River in Scott County, Tennessee. The spill was discovered three days later by Steve Bakaletz, a wildlife biologist with the National Park Service. According to Bakaletz, crews had been attempting to clean up the spill but had not yet completed by the time the it was discovered. The New River supports two endangered species of fish.

Citizen activism

Activists disrupt National Coal Corporation's June 7, 2005 stockholders meeting.

On June 7, 2005, approximately 45 Mountain Justice Summer activists, some in animal costumes, surprised the first-ever shareholders meeting of Knoxville-based National Coal Corporation with a marching band, chants, drumming and noise makers. Demonstrators demanded that National Coal stop mountaintop removal mining and distributed informational flyers to shareholders. The sheriff and National Coal Corporation responded by assaulting protesters with pain compliance, choke holds and arrested three on bogus felony charges.

On August 15, 2005, Earth First! and Mountain Justice Summer activists blockaded a road leading to National Coal's mountaintop removal coal mine in Campbell County, Tennessee. Activists stopped a car on the road, removed its tires, locked themselves to the vehicle, and erected a tripod with a person perched on top of it. National Coal workers arrived and threatened the protestors; one tried to ram the tripod with his car. Eleven people were arrested; the police treated the arrested activists very roughly, endangering their safety.

In an act of civil disobedience, four citizen activists walked across a line designating National Coal Corporation's property at Zeb Mountain. The four were immediately arrested. July 20, 2008.

On July 20, 2008, residents from coal-impacted communities throughout Appalachia gathered for a march at Zeb Mountain, the largest surface coal mining site in Tennessee, to protest the environmentally destructive practice of mountaintop removal and surface coal mining. The march was organized by United Mountain Defense, Mountain Justice Summer, and Three Rivers Earth First! and included political theater, life-sized puppets and rousing speeches.

In an act of civil disobedience, four citizen activists walked across a line marked with police tape designating National Coal Corporation's property. The four were immediately arrested without incidence and removed from the property by the Campbell County Sheriff's office.

History

While coal mining is relatively unimportant in Tennessee today, the state was once one of the largest coal producers in the United States.

The building of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad in 1855 opened hitherto economically unprofitable areas to coal mining. These railroads put the state under a crushing debt; beginning in the 1870's, Tennessee relieved that debt in part by leasing convicts to coal mining companies - especially to Tennessee Coal & Iron - to work in the mines. The majority of these convict-miners were black, and their labor was used to break the backs of nascent coal miners' unions; the state also increased punishments for petty crimes, in order to ensure a steady supply of workers for the mining industry. In 1871, white paid coal miners struck against the use of convicts in the Tracy City mines, and even attacked the prison compound with the goal of freeing the convicts; they were unsuccessful. In 1891, striking coal miners in Briceville were successful in their attempt to free coal-mining convicts; in the following year, the convict lease system was abolished, but was replaced by a substitute system: a prison in which convicts would mine coal for the state.

In the 1880's, the state's railway network was dramatically expanded; coal mined in Tennessee grew exponentially thereafter, from 133,000 tons in 1870 to 2.17 million tons (about the same as the current total) in 1890, and then to 7 million tons by 1910. Coal companies (legally or not) acquired the land of individual farmers; by the early 20th century, the American Association - a British coal mining company - owned roughly 80% of the land in Campbell and Claiborne counties. Southern and eastern European immigrants were brought in to break strikes by Tennessee natives, and caused a surge in the state's population.

Between the 1930's and the 1960's, Tennessee's coal production fluctuated at 5-6 million tons per year; however, throughout that period, employment dropped precipitously, due to increasing mechanization. In the 1970's, coal mining boomed, and production peaked at 11.2 million tons per year in 1972; strip mining in general, and mountaintop removal mining in particular, became much more important during the 70's. Since then, production has declined rapidly, especially since 1990, with the rise of Powder River Basin coal; in 2006, the state produced 2.8 million tons of coal.

In 1933, President Roosevelt created the Tennessee Valley Authority, a public power company built with the aim of creating economic development in the Tennessee River Valley of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky. The TVA relied heavily on coal power, and private companies were unable to compete with this public utility. Today, the TVA owns 42 coal-fired power plants in Tennessee, which produce a massive 97.4% of all coal power generated in the state. Out of these 42 coal plants that the TVA owns, all but three were built before 1960.

Legislative issues

The Tennessee General Assembly meets in Nashville each year beginning in January. Generally, legislative sessions last through late April or May of each year.

In January 2008, State Senator Raymond Finney introduced a bill (SB3822/HB3348), called the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act, that would effectively end the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining in the state of Tennessee. Sen. Finney worked with the Lindquist Environmental Appalachian Fellowship (LEAF) and eleven other co-sponsors in the House and Senate to draft the legislation. LEAF is a Tennessee faith-based environmental stewardship group whose mission, according to their website, "is to bring the issue of mountaintop removal to the attention of East Tennessee’s Christian communities and encourage them to address the environmental destruction and economic injustice this practice inflicts on the land and people of Appalachia".

A major provision in the legislation would ban all surface coal operations or the resulting waste within 100 feet of any stream or river unless the operation was to improve the quality of the a stream previously destroyed by mining. This would end the current practice of dumping the mining waste directly into the streams and valleys.

The legislation would also ban all surface mining above 2000 feet in elevation.

A hearing on the bill was held in March 2008. Citizens presented evidence of Tennessee surface coal mining operators violating federal law and a list of numerous citations found at mining sites by the federal Office of Surface Mining inspectors. National Coal Corp. alone had more than 50 citations. National Coal president and CEO, Daniel A. Roling, responded by threatening the legislators that if they allowed the bill to be passed, National Coal would pull a planned $30 million investment away from the state and give it "to Alabama or somewhere else."

In April 2008, as a final act before recessing for the year, the House Environment Subcommittee voted against allowing the bill to move forward by a vote of 3-5.

Another bill introduced in January 2008 (SB2671/HB2895) would increase the tax on coal mined in Tennessee from a flat 20 cents per ton to 4.5 percent of gross value. An amendment to the bill called for using half of the revenue generated from the tax to make an attempt at repairing some of the environmental damage from strip mining left behind by coal companies. The rest of the revenue would go to the schools and highways in counties directly affected by coal mining.

Governor Phil Bredesen stated support for the bill saying, "I don't think we should be a cheap place to mine coal."

On April 8, 2008 the bill passed the Senate Tax Subcommittee and was forwarded to the Finance Committee. The Finance Committee did not move on the bill before ending their legislative year.

Proposed coal plants

Active

There are currently no active coal power plant proposals in Tennessee.

Cancelled

Chattanooga Project, Chattanooga, TN

Coal power companies

• Tennessee Valley Authority
  • Headquarters in Knoxville, TN
  • Owned by U.S. Federal Government
  • 4th biggest coal energy producer in U.S.
  • Controls 63 coal-fired generating stations with 17,647 MW total capacity

Existing coal plants

Tennessee had 63 coal-fired generating stations in 2005, with a total of 10,290 MW of capacity; this represents 44.8% of the state's electric generating capacity. 97.4% of coal-fired generating capacity in the state is owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Here is a list of coal power plants in Tennessee with capacity over 400 MW:

Plant Name	County	Owner	Year(s) Built	Capacity	2007 CO2 Emissions	2006 SO2 Emissions	SO2/MW Rank
Cumberland	Stewart	Tennessee Valley Authority	1973	2600 MW	19,600,000 tons	18,352 tons	235
Kingston	Roane	Tennessee Valley Authority	1954, 1955	1700 MW	10,100,000 tons	55,473 tons	84
Johnsonville	Humphreys	Tennessee Valley Authority	1951, 1952, 1953, 1958, 1959	1485 MW	7,735,000 tons	86,793 tons	20
Gallatin	Sumner	Tennessee Valley Authority	1956, 1957, 1959	1255 MW	6,817,000 tons	23,459 tons	156
Allen Steam Plant	Shelby	Tennessee Valley Authority	1959	990 MW	4,811,000 tons	17,413 tons	148
Bull Run	Anderson	Tennessee Valley Authority	1967	950 MW	4,523,000 tons	27,987 tons	72
John Sevier	Hawkins	Tennessee Valley Authority	1955, 1956, 1957	800 MW	5,199,000 tons	30,126 tons	70

These seven plants represent 95.0% of Tennessee's coal energy generating capacity, 49.0% of the state's total CO₂ emissions, and 34.4% of its total SO₂ emissions.

Major coal mines

There are no major coal mines remaining in Tennessee.

Citizen groups

• LEAF - Lindquist Environmental Appalachian Fellowship
• Save Our Cumberland Mountains
• Tennessee Coal Ash Survivors Network
• United Mountain Defense

Resources

Related SourceWatch articles

• Tennessee Valley Authority
• Tom D. Kilgore
• TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill
• Existing U.S. Coal Plants
• US proposed coal plants (both active and cancelled)
• Coal plants cancelled in 2007
• Coal plants cancelled in 2008
• Profiles of other states (or click on the map)

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