The Tennessee Valley Authority's board voted unanimously to extend the life of two coal plants and drop renewable energy as a priority during a February meeting. This decision follows the appointment of new members by President Trump and comes amid rising electricity demand from data centers. Critics argue it erodes the utility's environmental mission and bypasses public input.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the nation's largest public power provider, made significant policy changes at its quarterly board meeting on February 11 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. The seven-member board, which includes four recent appointees selected by President Trump after the termination of three Biden-era members in March, unanimously ended renewable energy as a priority and granted reprieves to two remaining coal plants: the Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, Tennessee, and the Cumberland Fossil Plant in Stewart County, Tennessee.
Originally, the Kingston plant was set for retirement in 2027, with plans to replace its nine units with a gas generation and battery storage complex. However, the board decided all units will remain online alongside the new gas plant, excluding renewables. Similarly, the Cumberland plant's planned 2028 closure was shelved. These plants were slated for retirement under TVA's 2025 Integrated Resource Plan due to Kingston's high costs and poor condition, as well as Cumberland's lack of flexibility. Kingston was the site of the 2010 coal ash spill, the largest industrial disaster in U.S. history.
The decisions align with increased power demands, particularly from artificial intelligence and data centers, which account for 18 percent of TVA's industrial load. During the meeting, the board approved doubling power supply to xAI, owned by Elon Musk. TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks stated, “As power demand grows, TVA is looking at every option to bolster our generating fleet to continue providing affordable, reliable electricity to our 10 million customers, create jobs, and help communities thrive.” Notably, a coal unit at Cumberland failed during last month's Winter Storm Fern, despite a promotional video crediting coal as a “workhorse.”
Former board member Michelle Moore, one of the fired Biden appointees, criticized the shift, saying, “The politics in Washington may change. But the TVA’s mission does not,” referring to its goals of affordable power, economic development, and environmental stewardship. She highlighted the lack of public input, which typically involves community reviews for such changes. The board also ended diversity programs and streamlined ecological impact assessments, following rollbacks to the National Environmental Policy Act. Board member Wade White noted, “Over the past several years, the TVA board has faced pressure to make decisions based on stringent environmental regulations.”
Environmental concerns persist. Duke University professor Avner Vengosh described coal as “one of the worst things you can imagine for the environment,” citing ecosystem damage, water pollution, and health impacts from particulate matter. A 2023 Science study linked coal plants to nearly half a million excess deaths from 1999 to 2020, with TVA's facilities deemed the deadliest by the Sierra Club. Sierra Club campaign manager Amy Kelly said, “People are upset, they feel like we’re going backwards.” Local resident Joe Schiller, near Cumberland, called it “a betrayal,” adding with a laugh, “It’s not like you look around every day and say, ‘Yep, that Cumberland plant is slowly killing me,’ Although it probably is.”
