The Tennessee Valley Authority broke the law in building a gas plant in East Tennessee, a federal court has ruled.
The public utility committed to spending billions of dollars on gas infrastructure next to its Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County years before formally deciding to build it. The decision-making process also had “fundamental” errors that violated federal law, the court found.
“The court ruled that TVA’s analysis for the Kingston gas plant was a sham,” said Trey Bussey, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, which sued TVA in 2024 on behalf of several environmental groups. “The court’s order means TVA has no legal basis to build this gas plant.”
While the court’s order is sealed, some details have become public because TVA subsequently submitted a court filing.
TVA plans to file an appeal, a utility spokesperson said in a statement.
What to know about the Kingston gas project
TVA is currently constructing a $2.5 billion gas plant in Roane County, near Knoxville, as one piece in a much larger fossil fuel buildout, and the pipeline giant Enbridge is building a more than120-mile connection between this plant and an interstate pipeline system. The 1.5-gigawatt plant is expected to come online in 2028 following a one-year delay.
The plan for the project began in 2021. TVA set up an agreement with Enbridge, a company that profits by selling methane gas on its pipelines. TVA committed to spending of billions of dollars from ratepayers on the gas plant before any project was formally proposed for the Kingston site.
In 2023, the utility proposed two main options — gas and solar — for a new power plant to replace the notorious Kingston coal plant in the first draft of a federal environmental review.
“TVA has obligations as a federal utility to meaningfully consider alternatives to what it wants to do and to involve the public in that process,” Bussey said. “This court ruled that TVA didn’t do that.”
In early 2024, TVA created an analysis that supported its preferred option of a gas plant in its final environmental review, published in February.
In March 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency warned TVA of “substantial” concerns over the cost and climate analyses used in the environmental review, which was required by the National Environmental Policy Act.
TVA provided opaque figures and deadlines that ensured the gas option, the agency found.
“TVA dismisses the lower costs, lower financial risks, and far superior environmental performance of [the solar option] by arguing that solar cells could not be installed by 2027,” EPA wrote in a letter to the utility. “The imperative of 2027 closure of the [Kingston coal plant] is not adequately disclosed. If closure by 2027 is an imperative, then TVA created an alternative that is technically infeasible.”
Days later, TVA’s then-CEO Jeff Lyash finalized the decision to build the gas plant. The former TVA board gave him that power without public notice.
‘That’s a bad deal for our pocketbooks’
TVA began construction on the gas plant by spring 2025, and Enbridge started construction on the pipeline last fall. TVA has since reversed course on closing the Kingston coal plant, undermining one of its main arguments to invest in more fossil fuel infrastructure, which uses large amounts of water and causes air and planet-warming emissions.
It is unclear whether TVA will now be forced to stop the project. The utility did not respond to a question from WPLN about the court order’s impact on construction.
Moving forward, the lawsuit could have a ripple effect on the utility, according to Bri Knisley, a director at Appalachian Voices. The group was represented in the lawsuit along with the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club.
“TVA invested ratepayer money into an expensive and polluting gas plant before fully considering alternative power options that are cheaper, cleaner and more reliable,” she said in a statement. “That’s a bad deal for our pocketbooks, and a bad deal for our environment and public health. Now, the court is ordering our federal utility to follow the law in how it plans for a new power source, which should have happened from the beginning.”
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