News | October 11, 2024

TVA’s gas-grab puts communities at risk 

Watch the video featuring SELC's expert Senior Attorney Amanda Garcia now

Let’s face it. We need energy to power pretty much everything that has an on switch. But instead of tapping into cleaner, more affordable energy options, Southern utilities are looking to double down on dirty fossil fuels.  

With methane gas emissions already topping the charts, the last thing we need is more of this highly potent fuel that will warm our planet quicker. Take for example, here in the South, where the Tennessee Valley Authority has proposed eight new gas plants. 

The draft plan confirms what we have been telling TVA for years: renewable energy sources can reliably provide power to TVA customers while saving money and lowering utility risk.

Amanda Garcia, Senior Attorney

The energy decisions we make over the next few years will impact our ability to address climate change for decades to come. 

Amanda Garcia, a senior attorney in SELC’s Tennessee Office, is our expert on how we got here, who is most affected, and what we need to do next.  

Here comes more methane 

As utilities across the nation are retiring coal, they’re really just switching to another harmful fossil fuel called methane gas. Unsafe levels of pollution from this methane gas-grab will continue to harm our air and the communities that live near these plants. It will also push our climate goals out of reach. Here are a few key facts: 

  • Methane is more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping heat in the atmosphere. 
  • Southern utilities are increasingly proposing new projects and pipelines that would lock us into gas for generations. 
  • The utilities participating in the gas grab include the Tennessee Valley Authority, Alabama Power, Duke Energy, Georgia Power, and Dominion Energy. 
  • Newly proposed gas plants would generate more than 33,000 megawatts of gas over the next 15 years. 

TVA targets Memphis — again

A person holds a small sign that says, "I am a Memphis water protector."
Ensuring a healthy and safe environment in Memphis has been a community effort. (Steve Jones)

We know industrial pollution has a disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous, and Latino communities, and areas where annual income is lower than the national average.  

South Memphis is a prime example. 

While the city is known as the Home of the Blues and a key stop on the Mississippi River, the southside of Memphis is also known for its history of being a community the fossil fuel industry has unjustly imposed itself on. Here’s what South Memphis is facing from the utility’s proposed gas expansion: 

  • One of TVA’s new gas plants has already been operating here for several years and now they are proposing another one less than a mile away. 
  • The new plant will add to the ring of more than 30 polluting facilities surrounding South Memphis, which have caused decades of harm to its people and the environment. 
  • The cancer risk in South Memphis is four times the national average. 
  • Gas plants proposed by TVA represent a large chunk of today’s unnecessary methane buildout.  
  • The utility is also proposing or has recently built new gas in Alabama, Kentucky, and all across Tennessee. 

TVA must do better 

Operated by the federal government and with more than 10 million customers, TVA has more people depending on it than any other utility. Yet, it still lags when it comes to implementing clean energy solutions to address the climate crisis. Although the Biden administration passed historic climate legislation that’s already helping confront climate change, TVA has brushed it off in favor of doubling down on fossil fuels. 

  • TVA’s gas plants are built to operate for 30-40 years. 
  • In a recently-released integrated resources plan, the majority of energy options TVA proposed include continuing to spend billions on dirty methane gas and pipelines. 
  • The IRP process is a chance for TVA to set a vision for the future — not double down on the outdated fossil fuel technology that will worsen the impacts of climate change and lead to higher power bills for Southern families. 
Better choices than burning methane, like utility-scale solar, are already on the table. (Stu Maxey)

“The draft plan confirms what we have been telling TVA for years: renewable energy sources, like solar power and battery storage, can reliably provide power to TVA customers while saving money and lowering utility risk,” says Senior Attorney Amanda Garcia, who works in SELC’s Tennessee Office. We hope that TVA will listen to communities, customers, conservation groups, and its own board members, who have urged the federal utility to chart a cleaner future for the Tennessee Valley.”  

It should not be considered a privilege to have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink. Everyone deserves equal access to a healthy environment.  

Better choices than burning methane are on the table and the future of our planet depends on them. When clean energy alternatives like solar and battery storage are more affordable and reliable than ever, letting our utilities lock us into another fossil fuel future is unacceptable.