In his Aug. 25 column, Clint Cooper complains about TVA’s “critics” — including Appalachian Voices — for pushing for cleaner energy and raising concerns about the impacts of data centers and coal and gas power plants that power them.
(READ: Free Press Opinion: TVA frustrates critics but stays on independent path)
The piece makes several inaccurate or misleading claims. We agree that TVA’s move to create a separate rate class for data centers is positive. But unless Cooper has access to information that TVA has not made public, we don’t know whether these data centers will pay their fair share under TVA’s new plan, and they may still pay a much lower rate than residential customers. TVA shared very little detail about the rate class before the board approved it with no questions or discussion, and no formal public input. This lack of transparency is unfortunately too common with TVA.
National polls show that most Americans are opposed to AI data centers built in their community. Folks are concerned about pollution, water consumption and energy use from data centers themselves. In our comments at the recent TVA board meeting, we called on our utility to ensure that new power sources for data centers are renewable, because new methane gas power plants will add more noise and air pollution, and their demand for fuel could increase costs and drive up energy bills for households across the TVA footprint, even with the board’s new rate class.
We are also extremely concerned that data center load growth projections are inflated by speculative interconnection requests by AI companies looking to see where they can build quickest and cheapest. In Illinois, the utility company Exelon found its data center demand projections fell by 40% after it required data centers to sign transmission security agreements that protect ratepayers. TVA should not rush to build more gas to serve speculative demand, as this would increase risk of creating stranded assets with long payoffs, and ratepayers would be on the hook if the demand proves to be overblown.
Cooper also gives TVA credit for making an effort to take coal plants offline or reduce their pollution. He conveniently omits the fact that TVA recently made a unilateral decision to reverse the planned retirements of two of its coal plants after TVA itself had already determined that its coal fleet is near the end of its useful life, is risky and expensive to run and maintain. Documents from a TVA board committee meeting show that the utility will need to invest $1.4 billion into the Kingston and Cumberland coal plants just to keep them operational.
Our stance in favor of increased renewables is not unreasonable or even unusually progressive. TVA already lags behind the national average in renewable energy. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the 2023 share of total energy generated by renewables in the United States was 21.4%. TVA’s 2023 energy mix included just 13% renewables, with no significant increase since. We are asking TVA to catch up by building low-cost, quick-to-deploy, reliable power sources that can be right-sized to the demand as it comes.
TVA is a public utility built by and for the people of the Tennessee Valley. TVA won’t succeed into its “second century of service” by refusing to take input from residents and organizations that represent them, or by refusing to be transparent with the public.
Our goal is not to be perpetual critics, but we believe that the public power model serves everyone best when the people’s voices are heard. The board should prioritize residents’ health and wallets, and move the Valley forward with more transparency and cleaner and more cost-effective technologies.
Leah McCord is an environmental social worker with deep family ties in the foothills of East Tennessee, Tennessee Projects Coordinator at the nonprofit Appalachian Voices and coordinates members of the CleanUpTVA coalition.
