In the shadow of Paradise Fossil Plant’s aging smokestacks, where white steam and carbon dioxide rises into the sky, outdated coal-fired generators are being replaced with one that runs on natural gas. The change in Muhlenberg County, once the nation’s top producer of coal, is emblematic of what’s been happening across the U.S. as natural gas becomes cheaper and electric utilities try to meet stiffer carbon emissions rules the Obama administration announced this week. When the $1 billion natural gas facility is finished in 2017, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public utility, will shut down two coal-burning units at Paradise that date to the 1960s. The Environmental Protection Agency says natural gas generators produce about half the carbon dioxide of coal-fired units, and a fraction of other harmful pollutants. “It’s a fraction of what it is on a coal plant,” said Billy Sabin, […]