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SW: →April 2011: TVA to phase out 18 coal units, including Widows Creek: added link to consent decree
On April 14, 2011, TVA and North Carolina settled the 5-year-old lawsuit - [[North Carolina v. TVA]] - over TVA emissions from its coal-fired plants. The deal was part of a larger settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over TVA violations of the clean air act at 11 of its coal-fired plants in Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee.<ref>[http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/04/14/1130021/tva-settles-with-nc-over-coal.html#ixzz1JWQu2mEb "TVA settles with N.C. over coal plant emissions"] News Observer.com, April 14, 2011.</ref>
As part of the North Carolina agreement, TVA agreed to phase out 18 units of its coal plants, adding up to 2,700 MW, and to install modern pollution controls on three dozen additional units.<ref>[http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=203101.0&dlv_id=174621 "Blockbuster Agreement Takes 18 Dirty TVA Coal-Fired Power Plant Units Offline"] Sierra Club, April 14, 2011.</ref> The phase out includes two units at the [[John Sevier Fossil Plant]], all 10 units at the [[Johnsonville Fossil Plant]], both in Tennessee, and six units at the [[Widows Creek Fossil Plant]] in north Alabama.<ref>[http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=13375691 "TVA Phasing out Hundreds of Jobs at Coal Plants"] ABC, April 14, 2011.</ref><ref name="TVA">[http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/decrees/civil/caa/tvacoal-fired-cd.pdf "Consent Decree,"] ''North Carolina v. TVA,'' U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville, accessed April 20, 2011</ref>
As part of the EPA agreement, TVA will invest an estimated $3 to $5 billion on pollution controls, invest $350 million on clean energy projects, and pay a civil penalty of $10 million.<ref>[http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/ab2d81eb088f4a7e85257359003f5339/45cbf1a4262af67b8525787200516dd7!OpenDocument "EPA Landmark Clean Air Act Settlement with TVA to Modernize Coal-Fired Power Plants and Promote Clean Energy Investments / State-of-the-art pollution controls and clean energy technology to provide up to $27 billion in annual health benefits"] EPA, April 14, 2011.</ref>
