TDEC Seeking Community Input For Emission Plan

TDEC seeking community input for the second phase of its multi-year emission reduction plan.

Policy Director Jennifer Tribble said they are now working on a comprehensive plan to identify and implement voluntary actions that can be taken to reduce air emissions in Tennessee. Tribble said they are looking for input from Upper Cumberland residents to determine which sectors they should focus on when looking for all-new ways to reduce emissions.

“Those sectors are things like the electricity generation sector or the transportation sector or the agriculture sector,” Tribble said. “So we’re really looking for feedback at that level as well as down to the level of the types of activities that we should be looking at.”

Tribble said there is a brief public survey on the department’s website where anyone can share their thoughts and opinions about the direction of the plan. Tribble said the Tennessee Volunteer Emission Reduction Strategy should generate new high-paying jobs, provide educational opportunities, and improve air quality across Tennessee.

“Because this plan is being done really for the benefit of Tennesseans, we think it’s a cornerstone of the plan to get that level of input moving forward,” Tribble said.

Tribble shared plan details with the UCHRA/UCDD Executive Committee last week. Tribble said they want input from people across the state but the plan will not be broken down to address the responses of each region individually.

“We’re not tracking locational data for the survey itself,” Tribble said. “But we are going out into the community and engaging directly with members of the public this fall. And so we’ll be able to get information from the types of responses that we get at these community events to know how folks in different regions of the state are reacting to our plan.”

Tribble said they recently finished the first phase of the project which was to develop a priority plan to submit to the Environment Protection Agency, the organization funding this whole effort.

“We were really focused on activities that are already happening across the state that we could promote or kind of build up to get improved reduced air emissions,” Tribble said.

Tribble said the survey is expected to be open until mid-October.