President Barack Obama is mandating even steeper greenhouse gas cuts from U.S. power plants than previously expected, but the new rules issued today give the Tennessee Valley Authority a big advantage over the draft proposal issued a year ago.

Under the new rules released today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Tennessee Valley Authority will be able to count the new Unit 2 reactor it is building at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tenn., as part of its carbon reductions. Previously, the EPA had said TVA couldn't count the new unit since it was started back in the 1970s before the new rules were ever developed.

TVA says it has already cut its carbon emissions by 30 percent since 2005 by closing old coal-fired power plants and replacing that power with more natural gas, nuclear, wind, solar and hydroelectric generation. Under its long-range power plan for the future -- known as the integrated resource plan -- TVA expects to make further reductions in coal generation by closing its Widows Creek, Colbert, Johnsonville and Allen steam plants and by cutting operations at Paradise Fossil Plant.

"We believe that TVA's 2015 integrated resource plan sets us up well for the future," TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said today. "Its flexibility allows us to meet new regulations and changing market conditions with decreasing CO2 emissions."

Brooks said TVA is still reviewing more than 1,000 pages of regulations issued by EPA today in the final version of the Clean Power Plan.

"So far it looks like some of TVA's significant issues regarding new nuclear and timing for compliance are addressed," Brooks said. "However, other modifications to the rule pose new challenges. At first glance, it appears that the net effect of these changes result in a final rule that is equally as stringent as the proposed rule."

Opponents Clean Power Plan said they will sue to stop the rule, and on Monday, the National Mining Association wrote the EPA a letter requesting that the agency put the rule on hold while the legal challenges play out.

Some of the changes Obama is making in the final version of the plan go even further in cutting the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming. Other changes delay implementation and eliminate certain options that states could use to show they're cutting emissions, making it harder to comply.

The tweaks to Obama's unprecedented emissions limits on power plants unveiled at the White House today aim to address a bevy of concerns raised by both environmentalist and the energy industry in more than 4 million public comments received by the EPA.

Read tomorrow's Times Free Press for more information.