Lawmakers echo EPA concerns over failure to consider data on project cost, climate impacts, and renewable alternatives
Washington (March 20, 2024) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety, and Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today urged federally-owned Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Chair Joe Ritch and President Jeffrey Lyash not to move forward with a new 1,500 megawatt gas plant and 122-mile pipeline based on an incomplete and insufficient environmental impact statement, which has been called out directly by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its inadequacy. The lawmakers called on TVA to instead revise or amend this assessment to follow federal best practices on calculating climate and environmental justice impacts, stop using outdated supply chain and cost analyses, reflect new incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, and properly evaluate a range of renewable-energy alternatives. This new gas infrastructure is intended to replace the Kingston coal-fired power plant.
In the letter to TVA Joe Ritch and President Lyash, the lawmakers wrote, “The proposed Kingston gas plant is part of the alarming eight-plant, multibillion-dollar methane gas buildout that TVA has undertaken since 2021. It is bad for the climate, community health, and customers’ pocketbooks. TVA’s Kingston decision follows its January 2023 decision to replace the Cumberland Fossil Plant with a 1,450-megawatt combined-cycle natural gas facility by 2026. Altogether, TVA has planned the largest fossil gas buildout of any utility in the nation this decade."
The lawmakers continued, “We look forward to hearing from you how TVA will amend the FEIS or issue a supplemental EIS to better reflect our and EPA’s concerns and recommendations. As the nation’s largest public power producer, TVA must prioritize an energy mix that lowers costs for customers, reduces environmental impacts for communities, and ensures a safer future in the face of the climate crisis.”
In August 2023, Senator Markey and Congressman Cohen led their colleagues in a letter to the federally-owned Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), urging it to phase out fossil fuels and transition to a 100-percent clean energy grid by 2035.
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