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.
The Tennessee Valley Authority is at a pivotal moment, one driven by new direction from above as the Trump administration eliminates renewable incentives, rearranges the utility’s leadership, and encourages extending the lives of coal- and gas-fired plants. As the utility plans its next quarter-century of energy production, those who run it insist they’re doing the best they can to meet the demands of the times, even as environmental organizations and community members protest its backtracking on the energy transition.
