| Type | Public company |
|---|---|
| Traded as | (NYSE: TE) S&P 500 Component |
| Industry | Energy |
| Founded | 1899 |
| Headquarters | Tampa, Florida |
| Key people | John B. Ramil, President & CEO |
| Revenue | $1.08 billion (2007)[1] |
| Employees | 4,300 [2] |
| Website | www.tecoenergy.com |
TECO Energy Inc. (NYSE: TE) is an S&P 500 energy-related company based in Tampa, Florida. In addition to the regulated Florida operations of Tampa Electric and Peoples Gas, TECO Energy businesses are engaged in coal production at TECO Coal in Kentucky and Virginia and electric power generation and related businesses at TECO Guatemala.
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Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have identified TECO Energy as the 37th-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, with roughly 11 million pounds of toxic chemicals released annually into the air.[3] Major pollutants indicated by the study include hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, chromium compounds, arsenic compounds, and nickel compounds.[4]
In 2000, TECO Energy was fined $3.5 million for making changes to emissions producing facilities without installing new updated pollution controls. This led to the switch from coal to natural gas in one of its plants by 2004 and optimization of pollution controls in another. These changes were enacted to drastically cut harmful emissions, notably sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide pollutants.[5]
TECO Energy proposed a $330 million emissions control project, which will make one of its power stations one of the cleanest coal-fired power plants in nation. The renovation is set to be completed in 2010 and will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions at the plant by approximately 85 percent from levels recorded in 1998.[6]
Since 1998, TECO has invested $1.2 billion in improvements to their systems, including the repowering of one coal-fired station to natural gas and the addition of pollution controls on a second.[7]