Federal Climate Bill Would Clean Tennessee’s Air

On Thursday, Congress might vote on what experts say would be the nation’s first major climate legislation.

In the $3.5 trillion spending package, there is one climate provision in particular that would radically change the energy grid in the next 10 years: the Clean Electricity Performance Program.

Basically, it’s a “financial carrot and stick” system, says Maggie Shober, director of utility reform at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Under this program, utilities would need to increase their renewable energy capacity by 4% each year to receive Department of Energy grants, which would be used on customer-focused programs like bill assistance, energy efficiency and worker retention. Otherwise, utilities would have to submit a payment — $40 for each megawatt-hour that the utility falls short of the 4% target.

This would force utilities to replace fossil fuel capacity with renewable energy, which would deliver immediate and substantial health benefits due to lower emissions of fine particulate matter and ozone pollution.

“We see lives that will be saved because of this,” Shober said.

Health benefits would include less severe and less frequent asthma attacks in children and adults, and fewer heart attacks, preterm births, premature deaths and other respiratory illnesses.

One nationally-focused study found that non-Hispanic Blacks would proportionately experience the largest reductions in pollution exposures, due to their current disproportionate proximity to power plants.

This study, from Harvard University and Clean Energy Futures, ranked Tennessee eighth in the nation for having the greatest expected reduction in premature deaths by 2030 under this program.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is ahead of most utilities in the Southeast when it comes to power derived from sources other than fossil fuels, thanks to nuclear and hydro plants, so it could reach the program’s 85% minimum cutoff earlier than 2030.

But under TVA’s current long-term proposal, the utility’s expected annual increase is just 0.3% per year between 2023 and 2030, according to analysis from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

So the plan could force TVA to build more solar and wind farms — and might even affect their plans for new natural gas plants.