Groups threaten TVA with lawsuit over Clean Air Act violations at Cumberland plants

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s reckless coal retirement reversal led the utility to violate federal law

CUMBERLAND CITY, Tenn. — The Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Appalachian Voices, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Sierra Club, has notified the Tennessee Valley Authority of the groups’ intent to sue the federal utility because the construction and operation of its newly-built Cumberland Gas Plant alongside the nearby coal plant violates the federal Clean Air Act.

In 2023, TVA finalized plans to shutter its coal plant known as the Cumberland Fossil Plant and replace it with a multi-billion-dollar methane gas power plant. The closure was long overdue—the aging coal plant is one of the dirtiest, least reliable, and most expensive power plants in the federal utility’s fleet. However, the gas plant TVA proposed to operate in lieu of the coal plant threatened to continue saddling nearby communities with harmful air pollution, including formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, fine particulate matter and smog-forming nitrogen oxides.

Despite this threat of continuing the site’s legacy of pollution, TVA avoided many of the Clean Air Act’s most important protections by characterizing the new methane gas plant as a “minor modification” to the retiring coal plant. The utility did this by promising the switch from a coal plant to a gas plant would not cause a significant increase in pollution.

But in February, TVA suddenly reversed course, going back on its commitment to close its dirty coal plant. Instead, TVA decided to run both the Cumberland Fossil Plant and the new Cumberland Gas Plant at the same time. TVA’s bait-and-switch means the utility can no longer subtract its coal emissions from its gas emissions, invalidating its “minor” permit. Although TVA admits it now needs a “major source” permit to operate both plants concurrently, it completed construction and recently began operating the new gas plant before obtaining that required permit. This violates the Clean Air Act.  

“The Tennessee Valley Authority’s decision to continue running the Cumberland coal plant alongside its new gas plant is more than a broken promise to the millions of people who rely on TVA for power—it caused the federal utility to violate federal law while putting communities in Middle Tennessee at risk in the process,” SELC Associate Attorney Delaney King said. “If TVA doesn’t fix its Clean Air Act violations, we’ll take them to court.”

Combined, the Cumberland Fossil Plant and Cumberland Gas Plant can pump out a massive amount of harmful air pollution. The two power plants are projected to release a staggering 4,700 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides, 8,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, and 1,500 tons of fine particulate matter each year. These pollutants are tied to increases in asthma, respiratory diseases, heart problems, and certain cancers—threatening the health of nearby communities who have already been burdened by decades of air pollution.

“The locals who will live with the risks of a methane gas plant and pipeline for decades were told these sacrifices were necessary to help TVA transition away from coal. Instead, TVA is now asking our communities to accept more pollution and more uncertainty while abandoning the very justification it used to impose these projects on us in the first place,” Angie Mummaw, Middle Tennessee Organizer with Appalachian Voices, said.

“It’s outrageous enough that TVA’s keeping its toxic coal plant open, but operating it next to a new methane gas plant without the proper permit takes chutzpah to new heights,” said Howard Crystal, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Valley residents’ health shouldn’t be sacrificed for the insatiable energy needs of data center billionaires, and TVA shouldn’t need the threat of legal action to follow the law and do what’s right for their customers.”

TVA’s construction and operation of the new gas plant without the proper permit also locked impacted communities out of the decision-making process. For TVA to get the proper major source permit, state regulators would be required to hold a public hearing and the public would have an opportunity to comment on the draft permit before any final decision. By unlawfully relying on a minor permit, TVA was able to fully construct and begin operating the new plant without meaningfully engaging with the public. 

When TVA decided to retire the Cumberland Fossil Plant in 2023, the utility wrote that the continued operations of its coal fleet is “contributing to environmental, economic, and reliability risks” and that the Cumberland Fossil Plant is a “significant contributing factor to these risks.” TVA estimates it will cost more than $730 million to keep the Cumberland Fossil Plant operating and to attempt to bring it into compliance with regulations—and families in the Tennessee Valley will be forced to foot those costs through their monthly power bills.

“Working people should not have to pay to keep this outdated and expensive power plant online just because the Trump Administration wants to prop up the coal industry,” said Bonnie Swinford, Campaign Organizing Strategist for Sierra Club. “The Cumberland coal plant is expensive and unreliable—the plant went offline during two recent big winter storms. We cannot stand by as TVA forces us to pay for an unreliable coal plant that will pump harmful chemicals into the air we breathe while raising our energy bills and gatekeeping the decisions behind closed doors. TVA must keep the people in public power, follow the Clean Air Act, and stop this pollution to protect the people of Tennessee.”

The 60-day notice of intent to sue is the first step toward filing a lawsuit under the Clean Air Act. If TVA fails to correct its violations within the next 60 days, the groups are able to take the utility to court.