Southern Environmental Law Center’s Statement in Response to TVA’s Long-Term Energy Plan

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In response to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) announcement today that the federal utility’s board approved its integrated resource plan, Amanda Garcia, Managing Attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center’s (SELC) Tennessee office, released the following statement.

“The two things that TVA’s integrated resource plan guarantees are fewer customer choices and higher levels of pollution across the Valley. How TVA provides electricity has far-reaching effects on Tennessee, the Southeast, and beyond. Even though TVA’s own study highlights the potential for distributed energy resources like energy efficiency and rooftop solar to play a larger role, it appears it’s still business as usual for TVA.”

“This so-called road map for the Valley’s energy future focuses on expanding investments in fossil fuels and gaining a monopoly over solar production. TVA is missing a huge opportunity to chart a different course, one that would incentivize consumers to invest in energy efficiency solutions and use rooftop solar to generate energy at no additional cost to TVA. Once again, TVA has shown that it refuses to be proactive in making clean energy choices to power the Valley over the next 20 years.”

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For more than 30 years, the Southern Environmental Law Center has used the power of the law to champion the environment of the Southeast. With more than 80 attorneys and nine offices across the region, SELC is widely recognized as the Southeast’s foremost environmental organization and regional leader. SELC works on a full range of environmental issues to protect our natural resources and the health and well-being of all the people in our region. www.SouthernEnvironment.org