Ten Congressional Senators and Representatives despatched a letter to TVA President & CEO Jeff Lyash and Board Chairman William Kilbride urging TVA to transition to 100% clear electrical energy by 2035, noting that TVA’s continued reliance on fossil fuels “fails on a number of fronts.”
Stephen Smith | August 21, 2023
| Fossil Gasoline, Photo voltaic, Tennessee, Utilities
On August 17, ten members of Congress, together with Consultant Steve Cohen (TN-9) and Senator Edward Markey (MA), despatched a letter to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) urging the federal utility to chart a path to 100% clear electrical energy by 2035. The letter begins, “Because the nation’s largest public energy producer, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) must be main the nation’s transition to a clear, renewable power future, not dragging its ft. But, TVA continues to depend on fossil fuels that aren’t solely supercharging the local weather disaster, however are subjecting TVA clients to electrical grid blackouts and power insecurity. It’s gone time for TVA to start the transition to a renewable and dependable electrical grid.”
SACE agrees.
“As an extension of the federal administration and the nation’s largest public energy supplier, TVA must be main the way in which towards our power future and the Biden Administration’s carbon-free objectives. As a substitute, TVA is planning to increase fossil gasoline infrastructure and make long-term commitments to fossil fuels, which is a path that’s clearly out of alignment with reaching our nation’s carbon-free objectives.
As well as, TVA’s rolling blackouts throughout December’s winter storm resulted from failed fossil gasoline infrastructure, together with fuel crops. A broader dedication to renewable power and power storage can be a wiser long-term resolution to satisfy TVA’s reliability and carbon objectives.
TVA’s determination to dig its heels into the excessive prices of a fossil fuel plant and pipeline in Cumberland is yet one more indication that the general public utility has run afoul of its mission and the administration’s objectives, and should have oversight from an impartial physique.”
— Dr. Stephen A. Smith, SACE Govt Director
The Congressional letter continues, “We write to induce you to section out fossil fuels and instantly chart a path to 100-percent clear power by 2035—one which prioritizes security, affordability, resilience, and justice. We additionally strongly encourage you to grab alternatives to thoughtfully re-evaluate and additional develop TVA’s long-term power and decarbonization methods, together with by way of the upcoming Built-in Useful resource Plan and the Valley Pathways Decarbonization Examine.”
TVA simply started crafting a brand new long-term built-in useful resource plan, or IRP, which is the prime alternative to appropriate its present decarbonization trajectory. By SACE’s personal evaluation, if TVA continues on its present trajectory it’s going to wrestle to get to zero carbon by 2050 not to mention 2035. That is primarily as a result of, regardless of important monetary incentives and technological advances, TVA is doubling-down on investments in new fossil gasoline infrastructure. TVA’s subsequent public future planning train received’t be till 2028/2029. The significance of this IRP on decarbonization of electrical energy within the Southeast can’t be overstated.
Because the Congressional letter factors out, TVA’s continued reliance on fossil assets just isn’t solely “supercharging the local weather disaster,” however can be “subjecting TVA clients to electrical grid blackouts and power insecurity.”
“TVA’s 10 million clients are shouldering the prices of its delayed transition to wash, renewable energy. TVA clients expertise among the highest power burdens within the nation, typically spending an astounding 20 to 30 p.c of their revenue on power… TVA’s reluctance to affix the clear power revolution just isn’t solely costly for its clients, it’s additional polluting communities which are already burdened with environmental well being hazards. Along with going through excessive power burdens, households within the Tennessee Valley area undergo from the results of TVA’s soiled power combine, together with publicity to the arsenic, chromium, lead, and mercury current in coal ash. In a single current case, TVA proceeded to dump coal ash in a predominantly Black neighborhood in South Memphis regardless of sturdy neighborhood opposition.”
— U.S. Senators Markey, Whitehouse, Merkley, Warren, and Sanders, and Representatives Cohen, Ocasio-Cortez, Barragán, Espaillat, and McGovern.
Together with the letter’s authors, we at SACE consider that TVA’s continued reliance on fossil fuels “fails on a number of fronts… undermines President Biden’s govt order to achieve carbon-free electrical energy by 2035… [and] is opposite to world calls to battle local weather change. And it disproportionately impacts communities of shade and low wealth. TVA can now not delay motion on the local weather emergency and rising power injustice.”
Click on right here to learn the letter in its entirety.
