The Tennessee Valley Authority is taking advantage of the pro-coal policies of the Trump administration to save money and review plans for its last few coal-fired plants, which generate around 13% of the federal utility’s power.
The Environmental Protection Agency granted TVA exemptions to strict air pollution regulations set during the Biden administration as President Donald Trump tries to keep the coal sector from going extinct, saying the polluting fossil fuel is “beautiful” and “clean.”
“This exemption will allow TVA to keep running these assets in a cost-effective way and help ensure reliability for our 10 million customers,” TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks said. “In general, coal is still an important part of our diverse generation portfolio. We continue to invest in our coal fleet to sustain the reliability and resiliency of our units.”
TVA, a federally owned utility that sells electricity to 153 local power companies and around 60 large industrial customers in the Southeast, has long planned to close its remaining four coal plants by 2035. Three of the plants – the Gallatin, Kingston and Shawnee coal plants – began operations in the 1950s.
Trump signed an executive order on April 8 to increase domestic coal production, which described the resource as “critical to meeting the rise in electricity demand due to the resurgence of domestic manufacturing and the construction of artificial intelligence data processing centers.”
The order directed Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and other agency heads to revise or rescind policies aimed at transitioning the U.S. grid away from coal-fired power plants and to identify areas were coal plants could support AI data centers.
It may be too late to save the sector, as both production of coal and generation of electricity using coal have dramatically fallen. Production of all forms of coal has dropped by more than half since a 2008 peak, according to a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Retirements of U.S. coal plants are expected to rise 65% in 2025 compared with 2024 as solar and wind energy grow faster than any other generation source, according to the agency.
Coal pollution rules and accidents are expensive for TVA
The peak year of 2008 was a turning point for TVA’s coal fleet after a dike holding back coal ash collapsed at the Kingston plant, releasing one billion gallons of the waste product in one of the largest industrial accidents in U.S. history.
After TVA spent $1 billion to clean up the mess, its cleanup contractor Jacobs reached a settlement in 2023 with workers and their families in their lawsuit that asserted they were exposed to toxins in the coal ash.
The utility is building natural gas plants to replace the Cumberland and Kingston coal plants by 2027. TVA has closed seven coal plants since 2012 and built multiple large gas plants in the footprint of coal plants.
TVA generated 64% of its electricity from coal plants in 2008 and just 13% from coal plants last year. After bringing Unit 2 at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant online in 2016, the utility sources around 40% of its electricity from three nuclear plants. Another 23% comes from gas plants, a growing part of its grid. Solar and wind account for just 4% of TVA’s grid, though the utility plans to add 10,000 megawatts of solar by 2035.
The utility is reviewing the executive order on coal plants, but did not say whether the order may alter its timeline to phase out coal plants. TVA has reduced carbon emissions by 60% since 2005 and wants to reach an 80% reduction by 2035.
The Trump administration exempted TVA from rules aimed at protecting the environment from air pollution at coal plants like the Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, the site of a disastrous 2008 spill.
“TVA is carefully reviewing this executive order for how it might apply and benefit our efforts to support load growth across our seven-state region,” Brooks said. “We look forward to continuing to work with the Trump Administration to unleash American energy.”
The political environment for TVA could hardly be more different under Trump than Biden, whose administration enacted sweeping restrictions on coal plant pollutants like mercury. The regulations were partly intended to push U.S. utilities to close coal plants rather than invest millions to control their emissions.
TVA was one of 47 companies exempted from pollution regulations for two years in a list published by the Environmental Protection Agency on April 15. The agency invited utilities to request the exemptions by email.
“It is preposterous that TVA would go out of its way and submit a request to pollute more in our community. There is an abundance of affordable, readily-available technology that TVA can utilize — most of which is already installed at TVA’s plants — to curb toxic emissions and protect families in the Valley,” said Bonnie Swinford, organizing strategist for the Sierra Club.
Such environmental rules come with steep costs to utilities. The TVA Board of Directors approved a $233 million project in February to add scrubbers to the Shawnee coal plant in Kentucky that remove potent sulfur dioxide to comply with federal environmental regulations. TVA will need the plant until at least 2033, according to utility documents.
The Trump administration has moved to undo regulations that require utilities to protect the environment and slow climate change.
In a bid to “unleash” U.S. electricity production and power a race for AI dominance, the administration has left solar and wind subsidies behind in favor of fossil fuels and new nuclear reactors.
Trump fired two TVA board members nominated by Biden, leaving the utility’s governing body without a quorum needed to approve new programs and policies.
TVA wants to recycle coal ash at its plants
Separately from the Trump administration order, TVA announced a proposal on April 14 to build and operate coal ash processing facilities at one or more coal plants to recycle the waste into materials like concrete and drywall.
The facilities would be a first for TVA, but not for the industry. They could be built at both active or closed coal plants in Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee.
TVA has reused nearly 70% of its byproduct from burning coal over the last five years, the utility said in a release asking for public comment on the proposal through May 14. It sells coal ash to companies that recycle it into other products.
In 2020, it became the first U.S. utility to extract and reprocess gypsum from a coal waste landfill to make manufacturing wallboard, said Scott Turnbow, vice president of civil projects and equipment support services.
“TVA is driving innovation in the beneficial use of coal ash – turning byproducts into building blocks that help support infrastructure and economic development across the Tennessee Valley,” Turnbow said in a statement to Knox News.
The coal waste facilities are subject to environmental review and TVA has made no decisions about the project. Since the Kingston coal ash spill, TVA has transitioned its coal ash storage from wet ponds to dry landfills.
Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Email: daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com. Signal: @danieldassow.24.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: TVA coal plants exempt from pollution limits under pro-coal Trump orders