Carolyn Morrisroe, carolyn.morrisroe@sierraclub.org
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The results are in and for the third year in a row, the Tennessee Valley Authority is failing to transition to clean energy, according to a report released today by the Sierra Club. Instead, TVA is planning an enormous amount of new fossil gas infrastructure that will increase the cost burden to customers and negatively impact local communities.
TVA received an F in this year’s edition of “The Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges,” showing no improvement over the past two years’ grades. TVA also plans far more new gas capacity than any other utility in the country, with nearly 6,000 megawatts to come from gas-fired power plants and pipelines by 2030. Methane gas is a dirty fossil fuel that’s 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeframe, and a major contributor to the climate crisis.
Communities across Tennessee are already feeling the effects of climate change, with more extreme flooding, increased temperatures, and longer periods of drought. TVA’s gas and coal plants failed during Winter Storm Elliott last December, leading to forced blackouts, while solar kept the lights and heat on.
TVA’s gas plans will also commit the utility’s 10 million customers to paying volatile methane gas prices for decades, even as the costs of renewable energy sources continue to fall. By spending billions of dollars on fossil fuel buildout, the TVA will burden families with higher monthly power bills, added fuel cost fees, and even more rate increases.
“TVA could lead the nation in the clean energy transition, but instead, year after year, it’s moving to add fossil fuels to the grid, which is already causing rates to increase,” stated Amy Kelly, Field Organizing Strategist for the Sierra Club.
Joe Schiller, Clarkesville, Tenn., stated: “TVA has it backward: The goal of the energy transition is not to build fossil generation to support building more renewables, but instead, to build renewables in order to retire more fossil generation.”
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.