The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a go-ahead permit last week for a new gas pipeline across Middle Tennessee. The project, termed the Cumberland Lateral by Houston-based pipeline giant Kinder Morgan, will enable the Tennessee Valley Authority to build out gas-fired units at its power plant in Cumberland City. Construction could begin as soon as this summer.
On Jan. 18, FERC granted a certificate of public convenience and necessity to Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., authorizing the project to move forward with the power of eminent domain. In its 49-page ruling, FERC determined that the need for more energy production outweighed significant environmental concerns brought up in an environmental impact study released in June.
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The Tennessee Valley Authority, which has already agreed to buy all gas supplied by the pipeline, has worked with Kinder Morgan to get the project through the approval process. In a Jan. 3 letter to FERC from executive Jacinda Woodward, TVA indicated it might renege on its plans to stop burning coal because of FERC’s “continued delay” in approving the new pipeline. FERC’s board currently consists of two commissioners appointed by former President Donald Trump and one commissioner appointed by President Joe Biden. Two vacancies have yet to be filled by Biden.
The new pipeline will trace a path from White Bluff — a town of about 4,000 between the Harpeth River and Montgomery Bell State Park — to TVA’s Cumberland Fossil Plant in Cumberland City. The extension will be an approximately 32-mile branch off Kinder Morgan’s 11,900-mile Tennessee Gas Pipeline network.
Kinder Morgan had been working for more than two years to secure easements from hundreds of property owners whose land stood in the proposed path of the pipeline. Landowners had been wary of signing away property rights prior to FERC’s authorization of eminent domain last week, which grants Kinder Morgan legal power to force property acquisitions. Residents also recalled devastating fires in 1992 when a downed power line ignited natural gas from another gas pipeline that runs through the area.
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Environmental groups and members of Congress have criticized the Tennessee Valley Authority for its continued embrace of fossil fuels. The new pipeline reflects a recent shift to replace retiring coal assets with carbon-heavy natural gas rather than renewable routes like wind or solar. The federal agency’s long-term plans openly disregard the Biden administration’s goal for a carbon pollution-free energy grid by 2035.
“FERC commissioners moved to recklessly rubber-stamp this project without fully evaluating the harm this unnecessary pipeline would do to families throughout the Tennessee Valley,” says Amanda Garcia, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, in a press release. “TVA customers shouldn’t have to foot the bill for the federal utility’s multibillion-dollar gas spending spree, especially when investing in clean energy technology is already more cost-effective than building new gas plants and pipelines.”
