Conservation groups sue over federal utility’s plan to replace coal plant with gas
By JONATHAN MATTISE June 16, 2023
Conservation groups sue over federal utility’s plan to replace coal plant with gas
By JONATHAN MATTISE
June 16, 2023
Tennessee Valley Authority President Jeff Lyash speaks with the Chattanooga Times Free Press from the TVA Chattanooga Office Complex in Chattanooga, Tenn., April 23, 2019. TVA, the nation's largest public utility, released plans Friday, une 16, 2023, to build a new natural gas plant in Tennessee, largely dismissing renewable energy alternatives one day after the Biden administration proposed strict new limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. (C.B. Schmelter/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP, File)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Conservation groups have filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the nation’s largest public utility from replacing a Tennessee coal-burning power plant with one using natural gas.
In a federal lawsuit filed this week, Appalachian Voices, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club challenge a decision earlier this year by the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a natural gas facility at the site of the aging Cumberland Fossil Plant in Tennessee. The lawsuit contends that the power provider didn’t properly consider cleaner energy options or correctly factor in climate and economic impacts.
The federal utility moved forward with the plan despite concerns raised by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the utility’s analysis of alternatives was faulty and that the project is at odds with President Joe Biden’s clean energy goals.
Biden has called for a carbon-pollution-free energy sector by 2035. That’s a goal TVA has said it can’t achieve without technological breakthroughs in nuclear generation and energy storage. The federal authority has a goal of 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2035 over 2005 levels and net-zero emissions by 2050.
The lawsuit claims TVA violated a requirement of federal agencies under the National Environmental Policy Act to give serious consideration to other alternatives. The challenge also argues that TVA did not afterward sufficiently consider the failures at certain coal and gas plants that led to rolling blackouts at Christmas time last year. Additionally, the lawsuit says the public utility didn’t appropriately account for renewable energy incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act.
“Instead of studying the environmental and financial impacts of its decision, the Tennessee Valley Authority relied on flawed reasoning and faulty assumptions to downplay the effects of its planned gas plant,” said Amanda Garcia, director of the Tennessee office of the Southern Environmental Law Center, which filed the lawsuit for the conservation groups.
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“TVA takes our environmental compliance obligations seriously, and the Cumberland Fossil Plant Retirement Environmental Impact Statement fully complied with all NEPA requirements,” Brooks said. (Cont. at stephenheins@Substack.com)