- The Tennessee Valley Authority is revising its Integrated Resource Plan to prioritize nuclear, gas, and coal over renewable energy sources due to changes in federal regulations and market trends.
For the past four years, Angie Mummaw has been told the gas-fired electrical plant the Tennessee Valley Authority is building a few miles from her home in rural Tennessee was a necessary stop on its move away from coal. But recent directives from the Trump administration mean the coal-fired plant that was slated for closure is most likely staying – and so is the planned gas plant next door. She lives right down the road from both.
“To hear that they just decided to continue burning coal indefinitely was kind of a slap in the face,” said Mummaw, a resident of Cumberland County and an organizer for the environmental nonprofit Appalachian Voices.
But for America’s largest public utility, keeping fossil fuel-powered plants running might be the wave of the future…