New board members at the Tennessee Valley Authority will meet Wednesday to consider keeping the utility’s major coal-fired assets online rather than modernizing TVA’s energy production by phasing out the decades-old technology.
The public-energy juggernaut abruptly released two supplemental environmental impact statements this month, one each for Cumberland and Kingston fossil fuel plants in Stewart County and Roane County, laying out a plan to keep coal assets online past a previously planned 2027 retirement date. The new plan cites data centers as a main factor in increased energy demand in the region.
TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks cited multiple factors as the utility prepares to abandon its previous intentions. President Donald Trump’s coal-friendly White House, which nominated TVA’s four newest board members, appeared to influence the decision both directly and indirectly.
“Due to increasing demand and changes in the regulatory landscape, TVA is evaluating options for its existing fleet of assets, in accordance with least-cost planning principles required under federal law,” Brooks tells the Scene in a statement. “TVA is evaluating the potential for continued operation of its coal plants at its Kingston and Cumberland sites.”
Nashville businessman Lee Beaman, a major Trump donor, was initially included as a nominee to the TVA Board. Republican members of the U.S. Senate abandoned his nomination in December after conflicts of interest between Beaman and members of Congress surfaced during his confirmation hearing. Trump revived Beaman’s nomination in January.
Trump renews Nashville businessman’s nomination after Senate Republicans abandoned Beaman in December
Clean energy guidelines laid out by the Biden administration had previously put the country on a path to a net-zero power grid by 2035. Congressmembers had even singled out TVA, an agency created to electrify the South during the New Deal Era, to do more to lead this transition as the country’s biggest and most storied public utility.
Recently the agency has taken flak for ignoring renewable-energy scenarios in favor of a large gas buildout, an expensive plan that promised years of high carbon emissions — as environmental advocates thought coal was finally on its way out, based on TVA’s plans. Official records of decisions in 2023 and 2024 slated coal units at Kingston and Cumberland for demolition and decommissioning. Reports this month claim that, after a decade of flat demand, TVA customers need more energy, citing new area data centers as a primary factor.
Environmentalists are describing the abrupt shift back to coal as a worst-case development for emissions, public health and ratepayers.
“TVA’s decision to break its promise to shutter these polluting coal plants is a bait-and-switch that will lead to more pollution in nearby communities, a less reliable power grid, increasing impacts of climate change, and higher power bills for millions of people throughout the Tennessee Valley,” says Trey Bussey, a staff attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Even worse, the federal utility made this reckless decision without even telling the communities that would be impacted, let alone getting their input. This is a blatant attempt from TVA to take the public out of ‘public power.’”
