Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) just released plans to double down on fossil fuel infrastructure for the next 5 years. Submit a comment today telling TVA to finalize a forward-looking plan that rejects more dirty energy and, instead, invests more in renewables.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the biggest public utility in the U.S., just announced plans to plow ahead with building more gas power plants—but it left the door open on exactly how bad the fossil bonanza will be.
TVA’s flirtations with gas ignore better clean energy alternatives and serious reliability risks. Last year, TVA had issues with generation in at least 10 of its 17 gas plants. And in 2022, TVA’s gas plants catastrophically failed during Winter Storm Elliott. Gas is also expensive—and a large part of why TVA customers will soon be paying almost 10 percent more for energy than they were in 2023.
Despite this, when TVA released a draft of its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) this week (the company’s long-term plan on what types of energy it wants to rely on going forward), it proposed doubling down on gas—the very same source of energy that caused the outages. But TVA left a big question mark on exactly how much. The draft plan proposes anywhere from 4 to 19 gigawatts (GW) of new gas plants in its six different scenarios. To be clear, no amount of new gas is needed. But the difference between 4 and 19 GW is massive.
The IRP is a guiding document for TVA’s energy investments for the next five years. Pages from TVA'S 2025 draft IRP.
Since an IRP is only released every five years, once this plan is reviewed and finalized, it will be the primary, guiding document for TVA’s energy investments for half a decade. So, what happens next is crucial.
If it goes down the gas-heavy path in its finalized plan, TVA will earn a notorious new title: the power company building the highest number of (expensive) gas plants anywhere in the U.S. But TVA still has an opportunity to pursue one of the cleaner scenarios in its final IRP.
Gas, often misleadingly referred to as “natural gas,” is no more “natural” than any other fossil fuel. In fact, research shows that the harmful impacts of gas have been historically underrepresented and gas could be as bad as coal when you take into account methane leaks. Polluting gas is stoking climate-induced extreme weather, and ironically, gas plants are often incapacitated by the very weather conditions they are contributing to.
Yet TVA’s draft plan could lead to massive investments into these unreliable sources of energy that accelerate the climate crisis. Rather than presenting or recommending a single path forward, the draft presents six different “scenarios” and five “strategies,” which combine to create 30 potential paths. These paths differ dramatically, either relying heavily on new gas plants (anywhere from 4 to 19 GW) or new solar plants (from 3 to 20 GW), with differences in the deployment of wind, nuclear, storage, hydrogen, and other technologies as well. The difference between these two potential futures is massive, and neither of them reflect visionary leadership.
TVA’s plan could lead to massive investments into sources of energy that accelerate the climate crisis. Page ES-9 of the 2025 Draft IRP.
These paths differ dramatically, either relying heavily on new gas plants (anywhere from 4 to 19 GW) or new solar plants (from 3 to 20 GW), with differences in the deployment of wind, nuclear, storage, hydrogen, and other technologies as well. The difference between these two potential futures is massive, and neither of them reflect visionary leadership.
Three of the dirtiest scenarios TVA puts forth (including the “reference” scenario) totally ignore federal regulations on power plant carbon pollution, which were finalized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in April. TVA cannot ignore the law of the land even if its leadership would like to. In its final IRP, TVA must reject the dirtiest options and plan for a clean energy transition that will lower costs, comply with federal law, and take full advantage of federal tax credits for clean energy and storage.
TVA has pledged to achieve net zero climate pollution by 2050, but none of its scenarios or strategies achieve that promise—let alone the federal government’s target of 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035. No amount of new gas allows TVA to achieve net zero, but some paths are much worse than others.
Proposing such a broad draft IRP, replete with uninspiring options, leaves the door open for a final version that allows TVA leadership to continue down the path to a massive gas buildout—or one that at last invests in lower-cost clean energy. Which path TVA takes will be decided over the coming months, as the public comments on this draft plan and TVA settles on a final version. The ultimate decision-maker here is TVA’s board, which must approve or reject the final plan in spring or summer 2025. TVA can and must pursue a path to clean energy.
Though federally owned and publicly funded, TVA is not behaving like a utility that was established to serve the public and uplift communities. TVA’s short-sighted proposed investment in fossil fuels is yet another decision that would be devastating for both people just trying to pay their electrical bills and the communities forced to live in the shadows of gas plants.
TVA’s actions are part of a broader trend of utilities prioritizing ulterior interests—whether their shareholders, CEOs, Big Oil executives, or just their bottom line—over their own customers. TVA reported its second-highest profit year in its history last year and its CEO Jeff Lyash raked in over $10 million, an 8 percent bump from 2022. Meanwhile, customers experienced rolling blackouts and steep increases in their monthly bills.
TVA has raised rates twice in the last two years to build new gas plants, with the total bill increase at almost 10 percent. The first rate bump of 4.5 percent allowed TVA to spend $5 billion on dirty gas plants and pipelines. This was 11 times more money than that was invested in renewables, despite the cost of gas being incredibly volatile and the primary source of major power bill increases in recent years. The latest rate increase of 5.25 percent takes effect on October 1 and will allow TVA to sink even more customer money into expensive gas plants if TVA moves ahead with a dirty IRP.
TVA is supposed to serve the public and uplift communities, many of which are in designated disadvantaged communities. Page 2-7 of the 2025 Draft IRP.
Moreover, we know that gas has reliability issues, and TVA’s approach of addressing these concerns by simply adding more gas plants to the grid is not a viable or sound one. Increasing the number of gas plants will lead to less reliable, more expensive power for customers when TVA customers already face some of the highest energy burdens in the country.
Crucially and, perhaps unsurprisingly, TVA customers are opposed to the unsustainable direction TVA is heading in. At every turn in the proposal and environmental review processes, the public has spoken out against gas buildouts, through comments, statements, and public letters. Leaders and decision-makers, including the Environmental Protection Agency, National Parks Service, and National Electric Service, have also urged a transition to renewables over meeting growing demand and replacing retiring coal plants with equally dirty gas.
To add insult to injury, because TVA is ratepayer-funded, the power company’s new investments in gas infrastructure are and will continue to be funded through monthly energy bills—all paid by the very same people who oppose their construction in the first place.
Despite these recent decisions, the door hasn’t yet closed on a better, healthier, and more climate-conscious future. The proposal TVA released is only a draft, so we can still defeat a bad plan.
Over the next few months, we can all push for a sustainable, forward-looking final plan that abandons the fossil-fuel foolishness of gas and, instead, invests more in renewables. Ultimately, after TVA releases the final plan next spring, the TVA board will vote on whether to approve or reject it. The board must reject a bad plan—and Congress and the President should fill current board vacancies with qualified experts not afraid to tell TVA to do better.
Current data has consistently shown that clean energy is cheaper than 99 percent of proposed gas power plants, so there is no reason to cling to a polluting, unreliable energy source, especially when there are cheaper, better alternatives available. TVA must take full advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) tax credits, which make wind and solar even cheaper—by up to 50–70 percent.
Beyond being cost-effective, a transition to clean energy sources would bring economy- and community-wide benefits. Recent modeling from Synapse Energy Economics shows what would happen if TVA proposed a 100 percent clean energy transition by 2035. In this scenario, TVA would create over $255 billion in economy-wide net savings for its customers. The transition to fully clean sources would support 15,000 jobs each year and deliver over $27 billion in public health benefits. Even TVA’s cleaner scenarios, which still build some new gas plants, would avoid tying customers for decades to so much expensive gas, with its fuel price volatility risks. At the same time, TVA would cut electric sector carbon pollution to zero while reducing the energy burden of TVA ratepayers—all without sacrificing grid reliability. It would be a win-win-win.
TVA was originally designed to uplift and bring affordable power to underserved rural communities during the Great Depression. It’s time the utility returns to that ethos with forward-looking ambition that meets the moment and delivers for the millions of Americans it serves.
Before it finalizes this IRP to double-down on gas, TVA will be accepting public comments until November 26th. Since this plan will be the primary, guiding document for TVA’s energy investments for the next five years, what happens next is crucial.
Do you get your electricity from TVA? Submit a comment today telling TVA to finalize a forward-looking plan that rejects more fossil-fuel foolishness and instead invests in renewables.
Author - Medhini Kumar
Medhini is the writing/editing digital lead for Evergreen. Through powerful storytelling, she hopes to help move the needle on climate policy and contribute to our collective fight for a livable planet.
Author - Charles Harper
Charles is the power sector senior policy lead for Evergreen. He leads Evergreen’s campaign to fully decarbonize the electric sector by building a thriving clean energy economy.
