Three environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the federal district court for the Middle District of Tennessee alleging that the TVA violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it decided to replace a coal-fired power plant that it was retiring with a combined-cycle gas plant. The groups alleged that the TVA failed to evaluate “the climate-warming impacts of the Plant’s emissions, the viability of carbon-free alternatives, and the cost of mitigating emissions in compliance with the climate objectives of the United States to decarbonize the power sector.” In addition, the groups alleged that the TVA refused to calculate how the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) would affect the costs of carbon-free alternatives. They also alleged that rolling blackouts that occurred as a result of a winter storm in December 2022 undermined the final environmental impact statement’s (final EIS’s) “assumption that gas plants would provide firm, reliable power in a way that carbon-free alternatives could not.” The NEPA violations asserted by the groups included failure to consider the plant’s climate consequences; failure to take a hard look at the impacts of a connected action (a gas pipeline to supply fuel); failure to objectively consider reasonable carbon-free energy alternatives, such as a solar and battery-storage option that the TVA dismissed based on transmission issues; and failure to rely on accurate economic assumptions to compare alternatives, including by excluding costs of carbon-capture technology and hydrogen conversion for the selected gas plant alternative, excluding social costs of greenhouse gases from its total system costs for the gas plant, and failing to consider economic incentives available under the IRA. The groups also contended that the TVA should have supplemented the final EIS to consider significant new circumstances and information regarding the unreliability of the existing fossil fuel-fired plant, the risks of extreme winter weather on gas supply and gas-fired power plants, and the resiliency of demand response, energy storage, solar, and wind, as demonstrated during the 2022 winter storm.

Challenge to the Tennessee Valley Authority's decision to replace a coal-fired power plant that it was retiring with a combined-cycle gas plant.

Appalachian Voices v. Tennessee Valley Authority

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Groups Challenged TVA Environmental Review for New Gas-Fired Power Plant

Filed

United States of America

Tennessee

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

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Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

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Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

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The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

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Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Hot temperature extremes are daily maximum temperatures  that were exceeded on average once in a decade or once in 50 years, and includes heatwaves.

The release of heat-trapping gases, primarily from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry.

A long-lived, colourless gas, chiefly emitted from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and cement production.

A potent, short-lived greehouse gas, largely released from livestock, fossil fuel extraction and waste management.

Actions to reduce emissions in energy generation and supply.

Technologies that capture and hold energy in reserve for later use.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

A drought is an extended period of unusually dry weather marked by a significant and sustained lack of precipitation, falling below a specific threshold over a large area for more than a month

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Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

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People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

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Any compulsory, unrequited payment to the government levied on corporations or individuals. This can be for environmental reasons, such as introducing a Carbon tax to set a price that emitters must pay for the greenhouse gases they emit.

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Climate change can have a range of impacts on technological system. Extreme weather events can cause infrastructure failures like power outages or damage to roads and bridges, as well as the impacts from waste following natural disasters. Human activities also cause technological impacts, such as the risks posed by oil spillage and leaks.

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Heavy precipitation refers to any form of weather where substances fall from the sky, including rain, snow, sleet, or hail.

Groups Challenged TVA Environmental Review for New Gas-Fired Power Plant

Target

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Just transition

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Finance