A newly-appointed Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors voted to walk back a commitment to retire its two largest coal power plants on Wednesday. They also struck renewable energy generation and DEI policies from the public utility’s strategic plan.
The board met with a quorum for the first time in nearly a year after President Trump’s drawn-out shakeup of its leadership sparked rumors of privatization.
Board members thanked the Trump administration effusively for signing executive orders and shifting federal policy to allow the TVA to reverse its plans and invest in coal.
“I’d like to start by acknowledging President Trump … without whom we would not be in the position today to recommend continuing to operate over 3,000 megawatts of beautiful, clean coal that will directly support energy resiliency, reliability and low-cost power for the 10 million people we serve,” said TVA Vice President Tom Rice.
The board voted unanimously to strip any references to renewable energy or DEI policies from its integrated resource plan. The plan had previously outlined a strategy to increase reliance on solar power by 2050 while phasing out coal altogether.
According to the United Nations’ most recent climate report, levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide – a major pollutant created by burning coal and other fossil fuels such as natural gas – continue to reach record high levels year after year. The greenhouse gas captures the sun’s energy, gradually warming the Earth and driving climate change.
It now appears the TVA will shift its focus to nuclear and gas-powered generation, two sectors prioritized by the Trump administration as energy demands from the tech industry skyrocket. The board voted to keep its two largest coal power plants in Kingston and Cumberland City, Tennessee open, despite previous commitments to begin shutting them down next year.
“Together with the Trump administration, TVA is helping strengthen and innovate the energy resources that power our country,” CEO Don Moul said. “TVA is an essential part of ensuring American energy dominance through abundant and affordable energy.”
The move sparked criticism from the Southern Environmental Law Center, a non-partisan legal advocacy group focused on climate and environment. Staff Attorney Trey Bussey says the utility’s plans to lean on coal power will end up costing customers in the long-run.
“TVA broke its promise to close those decrepit, polluting coal plants,” Bussey said. “That decision means more pollution for communities, and it also means a less reliable power grid and higher electricity bills for millions of people throughout the region.”
Past TVA leadership have pointed to reliability issues at the decades-old Kingston and Cumberland fossil plants. For example, the Cumberland plant has failed to operate during extreme cold, leading to a 2,500 megawatt drop in power availability that can create significant strain on the electric grid. Bussey says this is a big problem.
“These plants are not reliability solutions,” he said. “They are reliability problems.”
TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks says advancements in technology make the utility’s coal power plants cleaner – and more reliable – than they have been in the past. He added the utility doesn’t intend to cut current renewable energy sources from its portfolio, only put the brakes on growth as they race to keep up with surging demand.
“It's really all about meeting demand,” Brooks said. “Keeping the lights on doesn't necessarily mean that anything that we've changed is any less important. It just means that we've had to focus our priorities on meeting the demand … because demand is definitely growing.”
Board members also formally voted to sell energy to Elon Musk’s xAI data-center in Memphis, which will begin by drawing 150 megawatts a month. That operation has drawn criticism from nearby community members who complain of significant noise and air pollution.
TVA sells a significant portion of its energy to data centers, which are power-hungry warehouses housing rows of computers that run complex algorithms to keep a variety of internet services online, including artificial intelligence. The Tennessee Valley is attractive to companies looking to build new data centers due to lax zoning laws and cheap power, though tensions have risen among locals who aren’t keen on the noise they generate.
“I think people can and should insist on a public power model that involves the public,” Bussey said. “Right now, TVA is making important decisions based on the input of politicians in Washington and large tech corporations. It's not listening to the public. So I think it's important for people in the region to insist on being heard.”
Kentucky Public Radio's Justin Hicks contributed to this report.
