The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved plans to build a natural gas pipeline to supply a power plant the Tennessee Valley Authority plans to build near Clarksville, Tennessee, at the site of TVA's biggest coal plant.
Despite opposition from environmental groups, the commission authorized the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. LLC to build a 32-mile-long gas pipeline in Middle Tennessee sought by TVA to power a new combined cycle natural gas plant to replace a portion of the 2,470 megawatts of coal-fired generation planned to be idled within the next five years at the Cumberland Fossil Plant near Clarksville.
By a 2-1 vote, the regulatory agency approved the proposed pipeline after TVA said earlier this month that without immediate approval of the gas line, the shutdown of the coal-fired plants at Cumberland would have to be delayed.
"The approval of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.'s proposed pipeline will help TVA bring cleaner, more reliable generation online," TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks said Tuesday. "This will provide the TVA system with the flexibility to integrate renewables and distributed resources, increase reliability and resiliency, and meet power demand in the region."
Although the new gas generator will produce less carbon pollution than the coal plant it will help replace, environmental groups still object to building any new fossil fuel generation that will continue to produce carbon emissions linked with global warming. Critics of TVA said adding more natural gas plants undermines President Joe Biden's pledge to decarbonize the electric utility industry by 2035 and will require building potentially dangerous gas pipelines in communities that don't want such infrastructure.
"We're very disappointed by this decision, because we're not going to solve the growing climate crisis by continuing to build more fossil fuel plants," Stephen Smith, executive director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said in a telephone interview. "We continue to be frustrated that TVA doesn't do more to develop more renewable energy to be on par with their reliance on nuclear power."
(READ MORE: TVA plans 8 more gas plants in three years)
The new pipeline also could release methane and other pollutants leaking from the new pipeline and damaging properties across its path.
"FERC commissioners moved to recklessly rubber stamp this project without fully evaluating the harm this unnecessary pipeline would do to families throughout the Tennessee Valley," Amanda Garcia, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement. "TVA customers shouldn't have to foot the bill for the federal utility's multi-billion-dollar gas spending spree, especially when investing in clean energy technology is already more cost-effective than building new gas plants and pipelines."
Bri Knisley, the director of Public Power Campaigns for Appalachian Voices, said the pipeline construction will involve more than 155 stream crossings, each of which Kinsey claims could result in water contamination and harm to aquatic ecosystems.
"This unnecessary pipeline would put local communities like the historic Cumberland Furnace district, the Promise Land Heritage Association and several century farms at risk of serious damage from construction and long-term safety concerns," Knisely said in a statement.
Pipeline progress
The commission order clears one of the last obstacles for construction of a natural gas pipeline to TVA's Cumberland Fossil Plant. The pipeline company, a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Co., asked the commission to issue a certificate of public convenience and necessity to allow the proposed $225 million pipeline to be developed in Middle Tennessee.
Garcia said the Southern Environmental Law Center is evaluating a legal challenge to the regulatory agency's decision. Conservation groups are already challenging the state-issued aquatic resource alteration permit for the Cumberland pipeline, alleging state officials ignored the pipeline's effect on local waterways. The proposed Cumberland pipeline also must still obtain its federal water permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
But Brooks said TVA is "moving forward with the combined cycle project at Cumberland to ensure it is available and online when we retire Unit 1 in 2026."
Brooks said the natural gas generators will generate less than half as much carbon as the coal plant they replace and can quickly start to ensure power reliability as TVA boosts use of more intermittent generation from solar panels and windmills.
(READ MORE: TVA projects faster power growth in the future)
In January 2023, TVA made the decision to retire the Cumberland Fossil Plant in two stages, with one unit retiring by the end of 2026 and the second by the end of 2028. The shutdown of the Cumberland Fossil Plant is part of TVA's plans to shutter all of its coal-fired generation by 2035.
At its peak nearly a half century ago, TVA operated 59 coal-fired units and generated nearly two-thirds of its electricity from burning coal.
TVA now generates more than 60% of its electricity from carbon-free sources and has pledged to generate at least 80% of its power from carbon-free sources by 2035 and has set a goal of being totally carbon free by 2050.
But environmental groups argue TVA could move faster to decarbonize its power production by promoting more energy conservation and use of renewable energy.
"Last year was the Earth's hottest year on record," Amy Kelly, a field organizing strategist for the Sierra Club, said in a statement. "It is irresponsible and regressive to permit new fossil-fueled power plants and pipelines that will worsen the climate crisis, create more energy vulnerabilities and increase electric bills."
Cumberland coal cutoffs
Before the first unit at Cumberland retires, TVA plans to build a 1,450-megawatt plant on the Cumberland site, which is scheduled to begin operation by 2026, to replace the retiring coal units. TVA is also studying building another new gas plant nearby in Cheatham County, Tennessee.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission estimates the pipeline project will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 7 million metric tons a year by allowing the TVA to replace coal with gas at its power plants.
The commission's decision is based on a misleading comparison of carbon emissions, according to Maggie Shober, research director at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. The TVA's environmental impact statement on its planned gas-fired power plant, which the commission relied on heavily in its environmental analysis, significantly downplays how new gas infrastructure affects climate change, Shober said in an email.
But in its 49-page consent order, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said the TVA board, not the commission, has the exclusive authority to determine TVA's power generation mix.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.