The United Nations’ latest report on climate change says planetary warming has caused widespread and rapid changes to Earth’s oceans, ice and land surface. The continued rise in global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation will mean more wildfires, floods, heat waves and water shortages.
Fossil fuel combustion is responsible for 86% of emission growth over the last 10 years, and the remainder resulted from land-use change, the report says.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a press release that the report “must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet.”
In Tennessee, the 10 facilities that contribute the most greenhouse gas emissions all burn fossil fuels, according to the most recent data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Facility Level Information on Greenhouse Gases Total (FLIGHT). Seven of these climate polluters are TVA’s coal and natural gas plants.
Note: These numbers represent the direct emissions, in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent(CO2e), reported by the facilities to EPA for 2019. Facilities emit more emissions during extraction, transport and end use.
1. TVA Cumberland Fossil Plant
Emissions: 9,208,457
Fuel: Coal
Location: Cumberland City
TVA is considering retiring this coal plant and replacing it with natural gas or solar energy and storage systems. In 2012, this plant produced 14.1 million metric tons of CO2e.
Company Response: “Through the first three quarters of 2021, 59% of TVA’s power supply came from non-carbon sources… Ultimately, we aspire to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and support broader national efforts to decarbonize the economy.”
2. TVA Gallatin Fossil Plant
Emissions: 4,565,075
Fuel: Coal, Natural Gas, Oil
Location: Gallatin
3. TVA Kingston Fossil Plant
Emissions: 3,973,772
Fuel: Coal
Location: Kingston
TVA is considering closing the coal plant and replacing it with natural gas or solar energy.
4. Eastman Chemical Company
Emissions: 3,844,076
Fuel: Coal, Oil, Natural Gas, Propane, Used Oil
Location: Kingsport
Eastman Chemical produces amine salts, aviation fluids, gas treatment chemicals, plastics, solvents like alcohols and ketones, and more, according to the company.
The company’s sources of emissions are stationary combustion, petrochemical production and industrial waste landfills.
Company Response: “We now have a corporate goal to [reduce greenhouse gas emissions from earlier baselines] by one-third by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2050… It is our priority to continue to reduce the carbon footprint of all our products, doing our part within the value chain to move toward a low-carbon economy.”
5. TVA Allen Fossil Plant
Emissions: 2,058,845
Fuel: Natural Gas
Location: Memphis
TVA retired the Allen coal plant in March, 2018. It was replaced with a new natural gas plant.
6. TVA John Sevier Combine Cycle Plant
Emissions: 1,920,970
Fuel: Natural gas, Oil
Location: Rogersville
7. TVA Lagoon Creek Combustion Turbine Plant
Emissions: 1,386,423
Fuel: Natural Gas, Oil
Location: Brownsville
8. TVA Bull Run Fossil Plant
Emissions: 1,381,663
Fuel: Coal
Location: Clinton
TVA plans to retire this coal plant by the end of 2023.
9. Valero Refining Company
Emissions: 1,164,489
Fuel: Oil, Fuel Gas, Natural Gas
Location: Memphis
The facility’s sources of emissions are stationary combustion, hydrogen production and petroleum refining.
10. Signal Mountain Cement Company
Emissions: 688,436
Fuel: Coal, Oil, Petroleum Coke, Propane, Tires
Location: Chattanooga
Concrete is one of the most-consumed resources on the planet, and it is a significant source of global carbon pollution. The industry burns coal to heat cement kilns.
Other major climate polluters:
Agriculture: EPA estimates that agriculture, forestry and land use comprise about a quarter of global emissions. The cattle industry is among the worst offenders, due to deforestation, land use and cattle digestive processes. Of note, the cattle industry creates methane emissions largely through cow burps and the breakdown of manure. In Tennessee, cattle and calves were the second most profitable agriculture commodity in 2019.
“There is high confidence that this recent growth [in methane emissions] is largely driven by fossil fuel exploitation, livestock, and waste,” the UN report says.
Landfills: Landfills are another big source of methane emissions. Middle Point Landfill, in Murfreesboro, emitted 166,645 metric tons of CO2e in 2019.
Transportation: EPA estimates that transportation accounts for 14% of global emissions. In 2020, as people worked from home and skipped air travel, global energy-related energy emissions dropped by 5.8%. Oil accounted for roughly half of those emissions, according to analysis from the International Energy Agency.
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