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DOE should call TVA gas plans what they are: a bridge to nowhere – Tennessee Lookout [1]

['Amanda Garcia', 'More From Author', '- Thursday December']

Date: 2023-12-14

A hopper car on a train filled with coal to be delivered to a TVA coal-fired plant.(Photo: John Partipilo)

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm paid a visit to Tennessee to tour one of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s proposed nuclear facilities. While we’re happy that Granholm sees the pivotal role the Tennessee Valley must play in the nation’s clean energy transition, some of her statements during the visit should be cause for alarm at this urgent moment in the climate crisis.

In the last three years, TVA has built, approved, or proposed eight methane gas plants. This massive, multi-billion-dollar gas spending spree – which is the largest fossil fuel buildout in the country – will worsen the impacts of climate change and force families across the region and customers to pay expensive fossil fuel prices for decades to come. The more than 150 miles of proposed gas pipelines that will accompany the new plants will cut through parts of Middle and East Tennessee, putting dozens of communities, waterways, and ecosystems at risk.

Instead of criticizing these reckless gas plans during her visit, Granholm called the new plants and pipelines a “bridge” to clean energy – a common and misleading fossil fuel talking point.

Let’s be clear: building new methane gas plants now is not a bridge – it’s a U-turn that will take the Tennessee Valley back to outdated fossil fuel technologies of the past instead of the clean energy future.

During a December 6 visit to Oak Ridge, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm called new TVA methane gas plants and pipelines a “bridge” to clean energy, when they are a U-turn that will take the Tennessee valley back to outdated fossil fuel technologies.

Instead of spending billions on new dirty fossil fuel plants and pipelines, TVA must be investing in clean power sources, which are available now and more affordable than ever. In fact, studies show that a combination of clean power – including solar power, wind power, battery storage, and energy efficiency programs – would be cheaper than TVA’s gas plans. Those savings would be passed on to TVA’s 10 million customers, resulting in lower monthly power bills.

Granholm’s colleagues in the federal government haven’t shied away from criticizing TVA’s gas plans. The Environmental Protection Agency has told TVA that the utility’s plans do “not reflect the urgent need to take climate action,” and the National Park Service said pollutants from the burning of coal and methane gas at TVA facilities are “degrading park resources” at Great Smoky Mountains, Mammoth Cave, and Shenandoah National Parks.

This month, the Biden administration, seeing the incredible threat that methane poses to our climate, announced a new rule to rein in dangerous methane emissions. This rule follows other important climate actions, including executive orders calling for a carbon-pollution-free energy grid by 2035. Still, TVA – a federal agency with a board appointed by the president – continues to plow ahead with its fossil fuel buildout, undermining these important federal climate goals.

Following Granholm’s visit, TVA announced a partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to provide the East Tennessee DOE facility with 100 percent carbon pollution-free energy by 2030. This is a step in the right direction, but TVA ratepayers should not be fooled. While the utility helps corporations and federal agencies meet their sustainability goals, Tennessee families are left still dependent on – and paying for – dirty fossil fuels.

The Tennessee Valley Authority must scrap its gas plans and instead invest in clean energy. If it continues to refuse, the Department of Energy should join other parts of the administration in pushing TVA to lead the way in the clean energy transition instead of holding it back.







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[1] Url: https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/12/14/doe-should-call-tva-gas-plans-what-they-are-a-bridge-to-nowhere/

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