Groups take first step toward lawsuit against TVA over Clean Air Act violations at Kingston site

TVA’s unlawful actions come after the federal utility reversed its decision to shutter the Kingston coal plant. 

KINGSTON, Tenn. — On Monday, the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Appalachian Voices and the Sierra Club, sent a notice of intent to sue to the Tennessee Valley Authority, warning the federal utility that its ongoing construction of a new methane gas plant near the site of its 70-year-old coal plant violates the Clean Air Act.

The Kingston coal plant is one of the utility’s dirtiest, least reliable, and most expensive power plants, as well as the site of a 2008 coal ash spill. In 2024, TVA finalized plans to retire the plant. While the closure was long overdue, TVA proposed to replace the coal plant with a dirty gas plant, which would continue to saddle nearby communities with harmful air pollution. TVA avoided complying with many of the Clean Air Act’s most important protections by promising the switch from coal to gas would not cause a significant increase in pollution, leading the utility to obtain a “minor modification” permit.

But in February, TVA suddenly went back on its commitment to close its dirty coal plant and announced plans to run both the Kingston coal plant and the new gas plant at the same time. TVA itself acknowledges that operating both plants at the same time requires a “major source” permit, which would require the utility to study the impacts of the two fossil plants and to comply with emission limits by using modern pollution controls at the new gas plant. However, the utility plowed ahead with construction of the new gas plant with its less-protective and inappropriate “minor” permit and allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to coal plant upgrades—an unlawful move that threatens air quality in East Tennessee and puts nearby communities at risk.

“TVA has a long track record of air and water pollution from the Kingston site that stretches back decades. Now, the federal utility is forcing nearby communities to bear the brunt of increased air pollution from both a decrepit coal plant and a dirty gas plant,” Delaney King, an associate attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said. “Instead of complying with the Clean Air Act’s mandate to protect the public health, the Tennessee Valley Authority is recklessly sidestepping its legal obligations. If the federal utility continues to go down this illegal path, we’ll take them to court.”

Combined, the Kingston coal plant and gas plant can pump out thousands of tons of harmful air pollution each year. Pollutants that are released from the plants are tied to increases in asthma, heart disease, respiratory illnesses, and even some types of cancer. Each year, the coal plant and gas plant combined can emit:

• 2,380 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxide,
• 1,644 tons of sulfur dioxide,
• 851 tons of carbon monoxide, and
• 556 tons of fine particulate matter, an especially dangerous pollutant that has no safe level of exposure.

“Without any public input, TVA decided back in February to keep the Kingston coal plant on life support to generate power for data centers, which will cost households hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Bri Knisley, Director of Public Power Campaigns of Appalachian Voices. “Since then, TVA has yet to pursue an appropriate air permit for operating both the coal and gas plants at the same time. TVA isn’t above the law, and we will continue to hold our public utility accountable to clean air standards and to prioritizing the wellbeing of communities in our region.”

In 2024, when TVA decided to retire its coal plants, the utility wrote that the continued operations of its coal fleet was “contributing to environmental, economic, and reliability risks” and that keeping the Kingston coal plant open would present “reliability challenges that are difficult to anticipate and expensive to mitigate.” TVA estimates it will cost more than $636 million to keep the Kingston coal plant operating and to attempt to bring it into compliance with regulations. Families in the Tennessee Valley will be forced to foot those costs through their monthly power bills.

“TVA is trying to bamboozle the public. It uses the planned retirements of coal plants as justification for a massive gas buildout, and then backs out of those retirement dates,” said Cynthia Willet, Conservation Chair of the Sierra Club’s Tennessee Chapter. “By trying to have its cake and eat it too, TVA is leaving everyday residents of the Tennessee Valley on the hook to pay for the construction of a methane gas plant and pipeline and the upkeep of outdated and expensive coal plants– all to power the A.I. data center boom.”

Last month, groups sent a warning to TVA over similar Clean Air Act violations at its Cumberland Fossil Plant in Cumberland City, 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.