Groups Sue TVA Over Clean Air Act Violations at Kingston Site

Environmental groups have sued the Tennessee Valley Authority over its Kingston power plant site in Harriman, Tennessee. The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing Appalachian Voices and the Sierra Club, says TVA violated the Clean Air Act by building a new gas plant next to its 70-year-old Kingston coal plant without first getting a required air permit or studying what the two plants' combined pollution would do. TVA had earlier promised to retire the coal plant, which was the site of a major coal ash spill in 2008, but reversed course this year and now plans to run it alongside the new gas plant.

Together, the two plants could release large amounts of pollutants linked to asthma, heart disease, and other health problems, including nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, fine particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds. The site's greenhouse gas emissions could also double. A federal court has already ruled that TVA's decision to build the gas plant broke the law, and Tennessee's environmental agency found the construction unlawful, though critics say the state's response let TVA off easy. A similar Clean Air Act lawsuit is underway over TVA's Cumberland plant in Middle Tennessee.

This case is playing out in Tennessee and centers on a specific utility's compliance with federal pollution law. It does not involve a rebate program or a home upgrade. But TVA says keeping the Kingston coal plant running will cost more than $636 million, a cost that would likely show up on customer power bills in the areas TVA serves.