Environmental regulation case study: thermal pollution and the Paradise power plant

Over the past thirty years the United States has developed a very strong opposition to environmental pollution. One of the first signs of this growing movement was the 1970 addition of cooling towers to the Tennessee Valley Authority's Paradise Power Plant. By focusing on thermal pollution, this paper traces the evolution of one type of environmental regulation and its impact on the Paradise Plant. The Paradise story provides an image of the social motivations for the environmental protection movement, as well as an indicator of the economic and technological consequences of a distinctly political response to public outcry.