Groups sue TVA over Clean Air Act violations at Kingston site

HARRIMAN, Tenn. — On Thursday, the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Appalachian Voices and the Sierra Club, sued the Tennessee Valley Authority for violating the Clean Air Act and putting public health at risk by building its new Kingston Gas Plant, which TVA plans to operate alongside its 70-year-old Kingston Coal Plant, before receiving the required air permit or evaluating the impacts of the two plants’ combined emissions. 

The ongoing violation is the result of TVA’s reckless decision to go back on its promise to close the Kingston coal plant, which is one of the utility’s dirtiest, least reliable, and most expensive power plants, as well as the site of a devastating coal ash spill in 2008. Instead of following through with its commitment to shutter the decrepit facility, TVA abruptly reversed course earlier this year and decided to continue running the coal plant even after the gas plant is complete. The federal utility said in a now-deleted post on social media that it plans to run its Kingston and Cumberland coal plants “forever.”

Operating both its coal and gas plants at the Kingston site will cause a significant increase in emissions requiring a “major” source permit, but TVA barreled ahead with construction of the new gas plant without that required permit. The federal utility’s actions are a clear violation of the Clean Air Act.

“The Tennessee Valley Authority’s bait-and-switch is an obvious attempt to sidestep federally required pollution limits that would better protect families in East Tennessee from dangerous air pollution,” Southern Environmental Law Center Staff Attorney Delaney King said. “TVA has a responsibility to safeguard the health of the people it serves, but instead of taking that obligation seriously, it’s unlawfully putting communities at risk.”

Combined, the Kingston coal and gas plants could pump out huge amounts of harmful air pollution linked to serious health risks, including increases in asthma, respiratory diseases, heart problems, and even certain types of cancer. Based on TVA’s estimates, each year the site would release: 

• 2,380 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides, 
• 1,644 tons of sulfur dioxide, 
• 556 tons of fine particulate matter, and 
• 146 tons of volatile organic compounds, a class of chemicals that includes formaldehyde. 

The two plants also have the potential to double the amount of greenhouse gases being released from the site. 

“Communities around Kingston have already lived through the devastating consequences of TVA’s decisions, and they should not be forced to bear even more pollution because TVA went back on its promise to retire this aging coal plant,” said Angie Mummaw, Tennessee Field Organizer with Appalachian Voices. “The people TVA serves deserve honest planning, cleaner energy and accountability.”

TVA has ignored warnings from community groups that its actions violated the Clean Air Act and put East Tennesseans at risk. Last month, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation determined that TVA’s continued construction of its gas plant is unlawful. However, instead of holding the federal utility accountable for its illegal actions, TDEC gave TVA a sweetheart deal that fails to fix TVA’s unlawful actions and leaves nearby communities at risk.

In 2024, when TVA decided to retire its coal plants, the utility wrote that keeping the Kingston coal plant open would present “reliability challenges that are difficult to anticipate and expensive to mitigate.” TVA estimates it will cost more than $636 million to keep the Kingston coal plant operating and to attempt to bring it into compliance with regulations. Families in the Tennessee Valley will be forced to foot those costs through their monthly power bills.

“TVA is attempting to sidestep full accountability for the air pollution the Kingston plants generate,” said Bonnie Swinford, Campaign Organizing Strategist. “The Kingston coal plant not only pumps thousands of tons of harmful chemicals into the air, but it will cost TVA customers $636 million to stay online. The people of the TN Valley deserve better from TVA. It’s unjust for TVA to build a gas plant without protective air permits in place while breaking its promise to close down the outdated and costly Kingston coal plant.”

This lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. The case comes on the heels of a federal court ruling that TVA’s decision to build the Kingtson Gas Plant broke the law and its analysis of the impacts of the gas plant had “fundamental errors.” It also follows a similar lawsuit that challenges Clean Air Act violations at the federal utility’s Cumberland site in Middle Tennessee.