After mounting public pressure to hasten its transition to renewables, the Tennessee Valley Authority is moving ahead with a recommendation to replace an aging coal plant with another fossil fuel: natural gas.
The state’s largest utility announced the news on Friday that it had completed its environmental impact statement on the Cumberland Fossil Plant, about 70 miles northwest of Nashville, and is recommending a combined-cycle natural gas plant.
The utility had been under increasing pressure from key stakeholders, including local power companies like Nashville Electric Service, climate advocates and even the Environmental Protection Agency to consider more renewables, such as solar panels.
TVA’s CEO Jeff Lyash said in the release that their focus was “affordable, reliable, resilient and clean energy for generations to come.”
Natural gas is mostly methane, which emits carbon dioxide when burned. Natural gas systems are also a significant source of direct methane pollution due to pipeline leaks.
The decision comes as several Biden appointees are awaiting Senate confirmation to TVA’s board. The current board of Trump appointees delegated the decision on Cumberland’s future to its CEO last year, a move met by criticism from environmental groups.
Democratic Sen. Ed Markey, who has publicly criticized TVA, said the utility should not be making decisions on the future of Cumberland before the board’s vacancies are filled.
“The Tennessee Valley Authority is showing yet again that it is willing to lock its customers into expensive and volatile fossil fuel generation, rather than take this opportunity to adopt reliable renewable energy,” Markey said in a statement Friday.
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