Environmental groups are challenging the Tennessee Valley Authority’s decision to replace most of its Kingston coal-fired power plant with natural gas turbines over concerns TVA did not adequately consider greener and cheaper alternatives.
Appalachian Voices, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club allege in a lawsuit filed Thursday that TVA’s review under the National Environmental Policy Act did not properly account for the risks and costs of developing the Kingston gas plant and an associated 122-mile pipeline in Tennessee.
“Our country’s largest public utility is breaking the law and ignoring the climate emergency to plow forward with another dirty gas plant and pipeline,” said Gaby Sarri-Tobar, a campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement last week.
“TVA failed to fully analyze how much harm the massive Kingston gas plant will do to communities and the environment,” Sarri-Tobar continued. “Millions of customers will be saddled with decades of rising utility bills, dirty air and water, and fossil fuel-driven climate disasters. TVA is failing these people and the planet.”
